Friday the Thirteenth
Is Friday the thirteenth a tradition, or a superstition? It's mostly a superstition, I'd say. But surely a superstition is, to some extent, a tradition in itself. Friday the thirteenth is interesting because it's somewhat below the radar of popular consciousness. It's not a holiday, it's not a memorial, it's not an occasion in any meaningful sense. Mostly it creeps up on us without us noticing (rather appropriately) and exists in a kind of netherworld (also appropriately). If it's remarked upon at all, it's usually jokingly. Interestingly, the idea that Friday is unlucky is much older than the idea that the number thirteen is unlucky. Snopes.com says of the Friday superstition: "The reasons why Friday came to be regarded as a day of bad luck have been obscured by the mists of time — some of the more common theories link it to a significant event in Christian tradition said to have taken place on Friday, such as the Crucifixion, Eve's offering th...