Today is friday and it is 13th!
Well, maybe some of you have ever watched the movie. But I'd like to write the history and others related to this date which is considered to be bad luck in western superstition. Ehem, there is no written evidence for a Friday the 13th superstition but the earliest known doucmented reference in English occurs in Henry Sutherland Edwards' 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini:
Rossini was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; Why Friday the 13th Is Unluck
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| Gioachino Rossini: he died at the age of 76 from pneumonia at his country house at Passy on Friday, 13 November 1868 |
Anyway, we know that there are two older superstitions: that thirteen/13 is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day (however I love Friday!).
In numerology, twelve/12 is considered the number of completeness (as reflected in 12 months, 12 hours, 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ, 12 successors of Muhammad in Shia Islam, etc) whereas thirteen/13 is considered irregular (thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.) P.S. my mom doesn't allowed me to be captured with three people together in one picture, is it three or thirteen? I don't know -.-
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| Last Supper |
And about the Friday which has been considered an unlucky day since many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys, begin new projects or deploy releases in production. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. Oh! Jesus Christ's death on friday too. Great Friday, wasn't it?
In the 1907, Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th. Also the connection between the Friday the 13th superstition and the Knights Templar was popularized in the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code.
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| Thomas W. Lawson |
On Friday, 13 October 1307, hundereds of the Knights Templar were arrested in France. From the very day of Clement V's coronation, the king falsely charged the Templars with heresy, immorality and abuses, and the scruples of the Pope were compromised by a growing sense that the burgeoning French State might not wait for the Church, but would proceed independently. Although according to some, this date corresponds with the arrest of the Knights Templar by King Philip IV of France.
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| The novel: Friday the thirteenth |
Other events that have occurred on Friday the 13th include:
- Oct 13, 1307: Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and several Templar Knights were arrested by King Philip of France. Most were eventually tortured to death
- Jan 13, 1939: the single worst bushfire in Australian history struck Victoria, Australia, claiming 71 lives and causing widespread damage
- Sept 13, 1996: the renowned rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur was pronounced dead
- Aug 13, 2004: Hurricane Charley slammed in to Southwest Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to hit the US since 1992
- Aug 13, 2010: an engingeering train on the Northern Line of the London Underground became uncoupled and went on a 13-minute journey southbound from Archway station, finally stopping at Warren Street tube station on the West End branch of the line. The train in front was forced to skip several stations and was diverted to the City branch of the line
- Jan 13, 2012: France, Austria, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain had their credit ratings downgraded by Standard & Poor's
- Jan 13, 2012: the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia sank in front of the island of Isola del Giglio, killing at least sixteen abroad and injuring 64
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| The luxury Costa Concordia |
Oh! One more, the asteroid 99942 Apophis will make a close encounter with Earth, closer than the orbits of communication satellites on April 13, 2029. Check that date, it's friday.
Anyway this month is April/4 which is related to bad luck in chinese superstition. So, what are you going to do today? Friday, the thirteenth and the fourth month. Doing nothing and stay indoor at home? :p
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