What is the story about?
In contemporary reckoning, the association of number 13 with notions of being 'unlucky' and 'negative' have persisted pretty seamlessly. But considering
Fridays don't carry the weight of such perceptions, the lore of Friday the 13th being considered a day of caution piques interest from a historical and cultural lens.
The lore of 13
The first inkling of 13's allegedly ominous nature lies in Norse mythology, as explored in Charles Panati's book Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things (1987). The story goes that Loki, the God of mischief, broke into Asgard's majestic Valhalla during a banquet. This brought up the number of attendees to 13. What ensued was an unfortunate series of events ending in the blind God Hodr shooting his brother Balder, the God of light, radiance, joy, purity, peace, and forgiveness with an arrow, killing him instantly.Shifting the lens to Europe, 13's ominous energy further found reason in passages of The Bible. The Last Supper was held on a Thursday, now known as Maundy Thursday. The 13th guest to arrive was Judas Iscariot, the disciple who eventually betrayed Jesus. Jesus was crucified the very next day, a Friday.
Are Fridays really 'unlucky'?
Even for non-believers, the sheer number of unravellings that have took place across Fridays, as listed by CNN, are hard to ignore. Adam and Eve eating the forbidden apple, Cain murdering his brother Abel and the toppling of the Temple of Solomon are all turn-point events that took place on Fridays.Speaking specifically of Friday the 13th, fiction too has added weight to the persisting narrative, Thomas William Lawson's Friday, the Thirteenth (1907) being one of the earliest literary specimens. The plot follows a New York City stockbroker who played the anxieties plaguing the date, to his own advantage. On the big screen, the Friday the 13th franchise also drives the point home, across 12 successful releases.
The other side of the coin
As with almost everything else on the culture spectrum, it's not all bad. Pagan cultures for one, associate Fridays with the energies of the nurturing feminine. A popular interpretation of the fifth day of the week being coined Friday is attributing the coinage to Norse Goddess Frigga, associated with love, marriage and motherhood. The same association is held with Norse Goddess Freyja, who governs love, fertility and war.On the canvas, the Venus of Laussel, on display at the Musée d'Aquitaine in France's Bordeaux. The 18.11-inch-high limestone sculptural relief of a nude woman is still considered to be a potent symbol of fertility. The woman can be seen cradling her pregnant stomach as she uplifts a horn with exactly 13 lines carved across it.
Irrespective of the ratio of believers to non-believers to skeptics, it's safe to say that the notions surrounded with Friday the 13th have stood the test of time. And the reason is rooted in cultural expression and mythical lore.
