Friday the 13th

Just listing some 'did you know' things today. I'm not superstitious but I do get a kick out of it being Friday the 13th - oooohhhhhhh!!!!

Did you know that if you are afraid of this day that you suffer from Paraskevidekatriaphobia? Now, say that really fast three times. LOL.

And did you know that, "LEGEND HAS IT: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven." (by David Emery)

And this, "LEGEND HAS IT: Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams. Don't start a trip on Friday or you will have misfortune. If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow. Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck – as in the tale of H.M.S. Friday ... One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell once and for all the widespread superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned, named "H.M.S. Friday." They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday, and was never seen or heard from again." (by David Emery)

If you're a fan, as I am, of the The Da Vinci Code, you might consider this:
"On October 13, 1307, a day so infamous that Friday the 13th would become a synonym for ill fortune, officers of King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Templars — knights, sergeants, priests, and serving brethren — in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, various obscenities, and homosexual practices. None of these charges was ever proven, even in France — and the Order was found innocent elsewhere — but in the seven years following the arrests, hundreds of Templars suffered excruciating tortures intended to force "confessions," and more than a hundred died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake." (by Katharine Kurtz in Tales of the Knights Templar (Warner Books: 1995))

About.com has some interesting information about this date. Why people fear it, what it's supposed to mean, and how its history has developed. You can also find the complete article by David Emery there.

You can take a "Superstitious" quiz at this site.

Maybe you only fear the number 13 but are okay with Fridays in general.

Well, no matter how you feel, fear, or celebrate today.....be aware and be careful!


Until Next time...Happy Needling!!!