• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Friday The 13th

I've never had anything of note happen on a Friday the 13th, but I am quite superstitious ;)
 
We've just had a fire drill, because someone in another office in the building set off the fire alarm making toast. :D
 
Having a quick scoot on this thread, I'm surprised that no-one has so far stuck their hand up to say "Hey, I was born on Friday the 13th, and I've turned out okay!" Well, um, here goes!

*Sticks hand up*

I was told as a kid that those born on this superstitious day would be bestowed with good luck for the rest of their days. I don't find any bad luck associated with the number 13, rather I regard it as my lucky number as I have so many good connections to it. I last had birthdays on the 'dreaded day' back in '97 and last year as well, and look forward to the next one! I find nothing wrong with them and feel that when one comes round, its my special day!
 
i give my notice yester day and start a better job soon so i feel fantastic on this unlucky day.
 
The company's phones all went dead today.
The curse of Friday 13th has struck!
 
Hello Everyone,

Hmm, let me-My Dean Martin CD is missing...my coffee mysteriously turned to ice...My Multivitamins have oddly expired...and I didn't comb my hair but everyone swear I've had it done. Yup, today is indeed Friday the 13th!

WW
 
My flatmate got hit in the eye by his own Switch card at the checkout when the cashier swiped it a bit too vigorously.

He also got asked by a very flustered woman in the street "Where is the Freemasons' Hall? Where is it?!" and then she ran off. However, as this is the middle of the Edinburgh Fringe and every building has been converted into a venue, this isn't too surprising...

As for me... I managed to walk three miles to Sainsbury's and get the bus back with no incident. My logic so far today has been, "according to the history, it should only be unlucky if you're a practising Christian."
 
My little brother got ants on him. But we were in the garden burning something, and he was standing very close to the entry to their nest (I think my dad is becoming annoyed by them though, since the quantity of ants is getting rather high). He was standing there on the landing, shouted "There's an ant on my glasses!", threw them to the floor and went to have a shower ;)
 
after getting hit in the eye by a moron wielding a hockey stick during PE on a friday 13th as a kid (thank god i wasn't wearing my glasses!), i usually freak out if i notice a friday 13th is coming up. today, i only noticed when i read this thread.

no bad luck yet today, touch wood.
 
Well, it's that day again! Have a good one! :D
 
When matriachal societies were dominant, there were 13 months (13*4weeks, makes more sense than 12), 13 signs of the zodiac etc. When males became dominant, this was changed and 13 became the number of a witches coven and similar. Kind of like the devil being pictured as a hooved animal like some old pagan gods when he was originally depicted as a shining angel. Its just propaganda on a huge scale
 
And another one!

I wonder how many I've lived through in my life so far?
Will this be the one that finally gets me?

(If so, someone please post it on the Irony thread... :( )
 
friday 13th

Today is has to be the most feared day of the year.Have you ever had anything unlucky happen to you on friday 13th if so what was it?
 
This appears in esoterica too, I think.

Assuming nobody wants to boast that nothing bad has happened in case that tempts fate, I will add my bad luck so far today which is pretty mundane thank goodness.

1) While reading the thread on powercuts my comp crashed and told me this site was not available, oooh I was so upset for a few minutes.

2) I telephoned a company to make my monthly payment and was told I had to pay the whole balance (over £100) after a heated arguement I had to make the payment. Booooo now I'm bankrupt I tell you!!

3) The guy delivering my monthly food shopping refused to carry it up the steps to my flat, I had to make 11 trips up & down the steps carrying heavy bags because he took all the bags out of the crates. The last guy did it all in 2 trips...he was lovely.

Thats it so far, will prob add later the way things are going.
 
The engine on my car's getting pulled apart as we speak, although in fairness it went "pop" on Thursday 12th and I won't know what's wrong until Saturday 14th, so I can't really blame today.
 
Which matriachal societies are you talking about jaloopa? As far as I know matriachal societies were never dominant , save a few isolated ones no doubt I'm not aware of.

The only "matriachal dominant societies" I can think of are the "goddess/nature worshiping matrachal societies" invented by misguided new agers and placed somewhere back in time before us men-types supposidly took over. I'm sure there were goddess worshiping societies but there is no evidence for some kind of widespread matriachal dominant society. Celtic culture for example was a lot more equal between the sexes than the Romans etc but they were not a matriachal dominant society either.

jaloopa said:
When matriachal societies were dominant, there were 13 months (13*4weeks, makes more sense than 12), 13 signs of the zodiac etc. When males became dominant, this was changed and 13 became the number of a witches coven and similar. Kind of like the devil being pictured as a hooved animal like some old pagan gods when he was originally depicted as a shining angel. Its just propaganda on a huge scale
 
I was made redundant on a Friday the 13th some years ago (it was a December, I think). I was escorted out of the building only to find someone had 'slashed' the tyres of my car.

I'm staying in bed today. Goodnight.
 
Don't know if it's unlucky for me, but I passed my Driving Test on a Friday the 13th - the way I drive it's probably unluckier for the rest of the world, to be honest.

But I knew I'd pass that test, as it couldn't possibly be any unluckier because of the day. Since then I've always felt the day was somehow charmed and lucky for me.

Adding to the good luck, the main system server at work died, so I can't do any work now. Yay! The day just gets better..
 
Bah! Some chav (no doubt complete with baseball cap and hood) has stolen my recycling box and bag while I was at work. :evil:
 
Correction:

Said chav did not steal my recycling box, but merely booted it several yards up the street. (I found it on my way to the pub.)

Recycling bag still missing, however - presumably being worn over head of said chav to conceal his identity....

On the plus side, the local curry takeaway accepted my £5 and odd pence in place of the full price! :D
 
One of J's taxi-driving colleagues couldn't get his car started today and needed a boost. His taxi call sign number? 13. 8)
 
About 20 years ago I had a really really crap Friday the 13th . I was having a break in Singapore whilst travelling back from Australia . In the hotel they forgot to give me my breakfast , then when I complained they brought it out to me cold. I then almost got run over whilst crossing the road . That evening I had to catch a flight to Zurich , and at the airport I got taken away by the police - they thought I was smuggling a rat out of the country (it was a toy kangaroo) . My mum and dad had put about 4 bottles of whisky in my case , and all the bottles smashed , drenching all the bags contents and leaving tiny slithers of glass in my clothes for weeks to come (this left me without a change of clothes for about 3 days , and left an innocent 14 year old kid stinking to high hell of whisky for a couple of days) . Oh , and my flight got cancelled. :(
 
To add to my misfortune, I had an arguement with my boyf and ended up crying all night AND my washing machine broke. The chances of getting hold of the landlord to get it fixed on a weekend is zero. Boooo.
 
Friday was not too bad at all, someone I have been eyeing up for a couple of weeks started flirting with me, I got paid back the £20 that I had forgotton that I was owed so that was a nice surprise and I almost crashed into a bus. The operative word in the last sentence was almost, missed it by a gnats whatsits. :D
 
Friday The 13th?

OK so today is Friday the 13th, supposedly the most unluckiest day of the year, has anyone here seen or experienced any evidence towards this?
 
Nope. But the Irish Times newspaper have picked today to move offices. Lets see what happens.

Heres an article about the 13th.

Your Unlucky Day
The religious roots of triskaidekaphobia.

BY JOHN J. MILLER
Friday, October 13, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

Feeling unlucky today? If so, you're in the minority but certainly not alone: About 9% of Americans believe that Friday the 13th is jinxed, according to a 1990 Gallup poll. It's one of our more prevalent star-crossed superstitions, running a little behind a black cat crossing your path (which worries 14%) and walking beneath a ladder (12%) and a little ahead of breaking a mirror (4%).

Religious authorities have often warned against putting faith in superstition. The First Commandment contains a clear injunction against worshipping strange gods. In "Summa Theologiae," the 13th-century manual of Roman-Catholic doctrine, Thomas Aquinas wrote: "Superstition is a vice contrary to religion by excess, not that it offers more to the divine worship than true religion, but because it offers divine worship either to whom it ought not, or in a manner it ought not."





In any given year, between one and three Fridays fall on the 13th of the month. As with so much folklore, the origins of this superstition are murky, but there is no shortage of theories about why some people view these days as inauspicious. It almost certainly arises from the union of two separate and older traditions about the sixth day of the week and the number 13.
It turns out that "TGIF" hasn't been a slogan for all times and places. Public executioners once favored Fridays. Most notably, Friday marks the day of the crucifixion.

Thirteen is trickier. The Bible assigns it no special significance, and Augustine even appears to have regarded it is as a good number--he once made a point of saying a prayer 13 times, possibly because 13 people attended the Last Supper.

By the 19th century, however, the number's reputation had taken a dark turn, at least in the English-speaking world: If 13 people sat at a table, it was frequently said, one of them would die within a year. This fear may have its roots in the Last Supper, too. Dread of 13 eventually took other forms, and today it's a rare building that has a 13th floor. Continental, Air France and Lufthansa don't put a 13th row on their planes.

It wasn't until about a century ago, however, that Friday and 13 were joined in disharmonic convergence. In his book "13: The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition," Nathaniel Lachenmeyer credits an obscure novel, "Friday, the Thirteenth," by Thomas W. Lawson, with bringing them together in 1907.

More rational types will have a field day with all of this hocus-pocus and no trouble invoking contrary evidence. In the old nursery rhyme, it is said that "Friday's child is loving and giving" (compared with Wednesday's child, who is "full of woe"). And if 13 is such rotten luck, then why did things turn out all right for the 13 colonies?

Superstitions are best defined as irrational beliefs: so they are, in a fundamental way, beyond argument. Yet people don't accept them because they're irrational. True believers can summon piles of anecdotes and think that they reveal a convincing pattern. A Cuban-American in Florida could point out that Fidel Castro was born on Friday the 13th (in August 1926). Or recall the day (in August 2004) when Hurricane Charley made landfall in his state, wreaking some $15 billion in damage.





Those of a more scientific bent might try to conjure empirical data. As it happens, a few researchers have studied Friday the 13th. In 2002, the American Journal of Psychiatry published a paper by Dr. Simo Nayha, who examined traffic fatalities in his native Finland between 1971 and 1997. He determined that although men were only 2% more likely to die in an accident on Friday the 13th, women were 63% more likely. In 1993, the British Medical Journal reported that "The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52% on Friday the 13th."
People who want to find a higher meaning in this will do so. "Superstition is the religion of feeble minds," noted Edmund Burke. Dr. Nayha, for his part, acknowledged that mere chance could not account for the fates of female motorists in Finland. He speculated that it's not bad luck but rather bad nerves--caused by worrying about bad luck, and affecting the way certain people drive--that make the day so dangerous.

Perhaps Will Rogers offered the best assessment: "Friday the 13th may not be exactly unlucky, but it hasn't done us a whole lot of good."

Mr. Miller writes for National Review and is the author of "A Gift of Freedom."

http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110009086
 
Back
Top