The hex of 'Friday the 13th' can be banished with a little bit of positive thinking, writes Kate Holmquist.
It's tempting to rebel against the ancient fear of "Friday the 13th" by spending the day petting black cats, walking under ladders, spilling salt, breaking mirrors and organising dinner parties for 13. The old superstition that if 13 sit down to dine one of them will be dead within a year goes back to Judas having been the 13th disciple on Good Friday. Sensible folk may do well to dismiss that uneasy Friday-the-13th feeling, but a lot of us will still be driving a little more carefully and ending an uneventful day with a secret sigh of relief.
But there are a few paraskevidekatriaphobics who fear Friday-the-13th so intensely that they'll be having a duvet day. They're actually not so badly off as triskaidekaphobics, who fear the number 13, and those who have a blanket-fear of Fridays (friggadekaphobics, perhaps?). Fridays on their own are traditionally thought to be bad days to change your bed, cut your nails or start a trip. To do so is to risk nightmares, sorrow and death by transport - if you believe in that sort of thing.
The lore that Fridays bring death has its roots in the Roman Empire, which performed executions on Fridays (Good Friday, again) - a tradition continued by British hangmen who did their gruesome work on Fridays, probably because it was a handy night to get the pints in afterwards.
Hardcore paraskevidekatriaphobics cite Apollo 13 and remind us that a potential Armageddon comet called Apophis is due to pass earth on Friday, April 13th in 2029. Nostradamus supposedly said that the world would end on a Friday 13th.
Ridiculous as they may seem, ancestral fears run deep. There's a human need to acknowledge dark forces, even if the result is no more than a frisson of danger and an excuse to say - when we've crashed the car, had a barney with the boss, or burned the toast - "oh, it was Friday the 13th".
This year we'll get to run the risks twice - on April 13th and again on July 13th - a day already booked for the launch of the next JK Rowling film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Tonight in Liverpool, Sonic Boom will be performing a concert at a venue called Roadkill - ideal for those who like to live dangerously. Black Sabbath were one of the first to use the aura of the day to gain publicity in 1970, when they launched their first album on Friday 13th - a lucky day for them.
The reputation of Friday as an "occult" Sabbath relates to the most intriguing theory about why Friday the 13th has been vilified. About 500 years ago, Christian Europeans dubbed Friday "the witches' Sabbath" because it was a religious holy day for some non-Christian religious traditions, but also for goddess worshippers, who were suppressed so that male Christianity could thrive.
Friday is the only day named after a woman - Frigg, or Freya, the Norse goddess of love and beauty in English languages. In Romance languages the day is named after Venus and even the Japanese call Friday Kin-Youbi after the planet Venus, if not the goddess. The feminine year of Frigg and Venus is lunar - with 13 months based on the 28-day feminine cycle, rather than the masculine solar cycle. The notion is that when the men took over, they imposed their solar year of 12 months in order to quell the feminine influences. Since then, the number 13 has been associated with suppressed feminine forces.
People who believe in bad luck on Friday 13th have a knack for making bad things happen to them. In 1993 the British Medical Journalreported that there are significantly more accidents on Friday 13th - as much as 50 per cent more. This could be explained by the psychological phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy - believing makes it happen. A psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, Dr Richard Wiseman, has conducted studies proving that people who consider themselves lucky - carrying around charms, crossing their fingers and so on - actually are luckier than people who think they're cursed by bad omens, no matter what the date.
So think positively this Friday 13th. It could save you from a nasty accident. And light a candle for Frigg, the Norse Venus. Considering the ignominy cast on her day, she's had an awful lot to put up with. Throw her a dinner, why don't you, with 13 people at the table - you'll officially have a coven, if the dark forces don't get you first.
