Friday the 13th Unlucky? I don't think so...

Most people say Friday the 13th is an unlucky day.  I wonder why?  Actually, most people say the number 13 is unlucky in general.  In fact, my building doesn't even have a 13th floor.  I never thought 13 or Friday the 13th was so unlucky... I mean, I love Fridays, who doesn't?!  AND, my mom and her twin brother were born on January 13th, 1943 (a Wednesday).  So you can see why I've always thought this day was extra lucky.  Without my mom there wouldn't be me.

Today is my Mom, Julianne Kaeser Manchester's birthday.  

Happy Birthday Mamma!  

Thinking about my mom's birthday being on Friday the 13th this year made me wonder why the superstition came about in the first place... so I did a little google search and here's what I found:

From Wikipedia: According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a "Friday the 13th" superstition before the 19th century.^[4][5][6] The earliest known documented reference in English occurs in Henry Sutherland Edwards' 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini:

Rossini was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; Why Friday the 13th Is Unlucky

Consequently, several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition.

One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

• In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of theclock, twelve gods of Olympus, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, the 12 Descendants of Muhammad Imams, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
• Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales,^[3] and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s.^[6][7] It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christianscripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday.^[8]
• One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth,^[9] in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.^[4] Records of the superstition are rarely found before the 20th century, when it became extremely common.

The connection between the Friday the 13th superstition and the Knights Templar was popularized in the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. However, experts agree that this is a relatively recent correlation, and most likely a modern-day invention. Although according to many Freemasons, this date corresponds with the slaughtering of the Knights Templar by the Church.

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So, basically the superstition has its roots in the church.  Interesting... I'm not sure how I feel about that... hmmm?

Well, I think superstitions (like most things) only have power when we give them power, and I've always felt 13 was a lucky day because of my mom, and I'm going to keep on thinking that way.

I hope you'll all join me in wishing my mom a happy birthday and many more to come!