A History Of Friday The 13th - part 3

FRIDAY THE 13TH

So when Friday is combined with the 13th day of the month we have a double dose of pagan symbolism and female significance. Up until the Middle Ages when pagans continued to celebrate symbolic pagan days, Friday the 13th was thought to be especially lucky because it combined the goddess’s sacred day with her sacred number (drawn from the 13 months of the lunar year). As a result, Friday the 13th was a celebration and festival day for many Pagans.

While the New Testament rationale for the dislike of both Friday and the number thirteen is often used as the explanation for the bad karma associated with Friday the 13th, it is, in my opinion, a little superficial to create such a strong taboo. Especially when one takes into account the pre-Christian history of both Friday and the number 13. After all, the Last Supper was certainly not the only time Christ gathered with his disciples and there were always 13 of them. No one suggests these earlier events were unlucky. In fact, based on the historical view of thirteen at the time of Christ, all indications show 13 as a lucky number, and this probably played a role in determining how many disciples there should have been. The same goes for the New Testament rationale for the dislike of Fridays. The crucifixion of Christ is the foundation of Christianity. After all this holy day is called Good Friday and is celebrated as a positive day!

What seems to appear, after one reviews the history, is that the modern taboo of Friday and 13 (and especially the two together) is the result of the Christian manipulation of earlier Pagan beliefs.

This is far from the only pagan celebration day Christianity has changed. Both Christmas and Easter are old pagan holidays, where many of the pagans’ traditions continue to be practiced, only without the understanding of their true origins. But Friday the 13th is different from these other plagiarized holidays because the Christians turned what used to be a day of celebration of female strength and power into a day of fear and taboos.

In trying to understand why they would try to do such a thing, one has to keep in mind that for the first couple of hundred years after Christ and the birth of Christianity, Christians were forced to practice their religion in secret for fear of persecution. This may explain why they linked their Christian celebrations with pagan celebrations to avoid being discovered. Their inability to practice Christianity in public during this time probably resulted in their dislike of pagan religions, the dominant religions during the time of the Christian persecution. And in turn, this led to their persecution of pagan celebrations when Christianity became the dominant religion.

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