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A History Of Friday The 13th - part 2© Gabriella Kalapos
Guest article by Gabriella Kalapos
The number 13 has an even more special place in superstition and fear of its effects has even been given a scientific name, Tridecaphobia. In fact, buildings avoid numbering the 13th floor, and airlines avoid using the number in tracking their flights and in numbering their seat aisles. The number 13 is rarely found on offices or shops, and even less frequently on the rooms of a hotel or guesthouse. In some cities, such as Paris, scarcely a single house exists with that ill-fated number. They get around this by designating the property twelve bis (twelve twice). The main reason given for 13’s ill omen is its association with the Last Supper, attended by 13 - Christ and the 12 apostles. According to tradition, if a gathering of 13 is held, one member of such a group – the first to rise from the table – will die before the year is out. Reportedly, an organization in France exists solely to provide a last minute party guest so 13 people are never at a dinner party! Again, as was the case for Friday, not all cultures share this dislike for the number 13. For example, the Chinese have no aversion to the number 13 because its literal meaning is "alive". Their taboo number, however, is four, because it sounds like the word for "dying" or "death". Two conflicting calendars were in use during most of the early Christian era in Europe. The Church's official solar Julian Calendar (the one we use today) and the peasants unofficial lunar calendar. When the number 13 is examined in a little more depth, a strong pagan and even stronger female pattern emerges. Paganism centers around Mother Nature and, within that context, the moon is vital. The moon and female fertility are also closely connected. The connection is so strong in fact that it is generally believed calendar consciousness developed first in women, because the natural menstruation of their bodies correlated with the moons phases. The 13 lunar months gave 364 days per year (13 X 28) with one extra day to make up the solar calendar. Nursery rhymes, fairy tales, ballads, and other repositories of pagan tradition always describe the full annual solar cycle as a year and a day. Thus, the thirteen months of the fertility or lunar year led to the pagan reverence for the number 13 and probably led to the Christian dislike of it. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article A History Of Friday The 13th - part 2 in Mythology is owned by Gabriella Kalapos. Permission to republish A History Of Friday The 13th - part 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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