superstitions - wordpress.comthe most likely reason for christian people to consider fridays...
TRANSCRIPT
Friday The Thirteenth
Breaking A Mirror Causes Seven Years
Bad Luck
Knock on wood
Black Cats
Walking Under A Ladder
Throwing Salt Behind Your Shoulder Lucky Rabbit’s Foot
The fear of Friday the thirteenth and the
fear of the number thirteen are both so
common that they each even have their
own psychological names!
Triskaidekaphobia
Triska deka phobia
Oooooh,
scary!
Paraskevidekatiaphobia
Para skevi deka tia phobia
Oh no! Not
Friday the
13th!!!
Who ever decided that one number is
unluckier than any other or why it’s
particularly bad for the thirteenth day of
the month to happen to fall on a Friday?
As it turns out, there are a lot of reasons
behind the superstitions surrounding the
mystical number.
Let’s explore them…
In Christianity, there were thirteen people
at the Last Supper, including Judas who
has been rumored as being the last
person to sit at the table.
In Viking lore, Loki was the thirteenth
god. He was considered a trickster and
caused many troubles (earthquakes,
attacks, and even deaths).
In the story of Norna-Gest, when
uninvited guests showed up at an
infant’s birthday party, bringing the
number of guests up to thirteen, the last
of the guests cursed the child.
Ancient Persians were weary of the
number thirteen because they believed
the twelve constellations of the Zodiac
would each rule the earth for a
thousand years, but after the cycle
ended (in the thirteenth millennia), the
sky and earth would collapse into chaos.
Sure, there are lots of superstitions that
claim 13 as an unlucky number… but
what about Fridays?
What’s so bad about Friday? And why is
Friday the 13th such a bad day?
The fear of Friday the 13th is actually a
relatively recent development.
Historians have found no evidence that
anyone ever had talked about “Friday
the thirteenth” until the 19th century and
the earliest mention of the evils of the
date were seen in an 1869 biography of
Gioachino Rossini.
Thomas W. Lawson’s novel Friday, the
Thirteenth became a best seller, and the
myth really picked up steam.
The most likely reason for Christian people
to consider Fridays unlikely is that according
to scripture, Jesus was crucified on a Friday.
In Christianity, it is believed that Adam was
tempted by Eve on a Friday (and that after
930 years of life, he died on a Friday).
Chaucer mentioned the unluckiness of
Fridays in The Canterbury Tales in the 14th
Century as well.
Friday is named for the goddess of
passion: Venus (also known as Freya).
› Belief has it that the scorned Goddess led a gathering every Friday with 11 other witches
and the Devil to disrupt human life for the
coming week.
It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to
imagine that people decided that if
Fridays are unlucky and the number
thirteen is unlucky, then any time the
thirteenth occurs on a Friday, it’s really
unlucky.
13
Fear itself
Spiders
The dark
Shaving your beard during the playoffs
Phobia: a persistent fear of an object or
situation.
› Ex: Mysophobia – the fear of germs or dirt
Superstition: belief that one event leads
to the cause of another without any
natural process linking the two.
› Find a penny, pick it up…
On a piece of paper, list numbers 1-25
down the side.
As you watch the video, write down
each superstition that is mentioned.
When we go to the computer lab, you
will choose one of these superstitions to
research.
There is something particularly eerie
about events that occur that we just
can’t explain.
Video
What superstitions do you, your family members, or your friends
have?
“The oldest and strongest emotion of
mankind is fear, and the oldest and
strongest kind of fear is fear of the
unknown”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in
Literature
Game time!