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Thread: Friday the 13th: Facts Behind the Superstition

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Friday the 13th: Facts Behind the Superstition

    Today is Friday the 13th -- the second of three this year. The third happens in July.

    Superstition has long held Friday the 13th to be a day of bad luck. It has become so widespread that there are specific phobias associated with the day.

    Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13 while fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia.

    13 Historical Friday the 13th Events

    1. On Oct. 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France raided the homes of the Knights Templar, who were warrior monks during the Crusades, imprisoning several thousand men on charges of illegal activities. None of these charges were proven, but hundreds suffered excruciating torture intended to force confessions, and more than a hundred died.

    2.Jacques de Molay, the last known Grand Master of the Knights Templar was burned to death on a slow fire outside Notre Dame on Friday, March 13, 1314.

    3.Butch Cassidy, notorious American train and bank robber, was born on Friday, April 13, 1866.

    4.Al Capone was sentenced to prison on a Friday the 13th.

    5.The Butler Act, a Tennessee law prohibiting schools from teaching evolution, passed on March 13, 1925.

    6.Fidel Castro, the much disliked prime minister of Cuba, was born Friday, Aug. 13, 1926.

    7.On July 13, 1951 The Great Flood killed 24 people, destroyed more than 2 million acres of land in Kansas and caused $760 million in damage.

    8.A huge South Asian storm killed an estimated 300,000 people in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and created floods that killed as many as 1 million in the Ganges delta on Nov. 13, 1970.

    9. A Uruguayan rugby team’s plane crashed in the Andes mountain range on Oct. 13, 1972.

    10. Hubert Humphrey, the 38th vice president of the United States, died on Jan. 13, 1978.

    11.An F4 tornado ripped through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and injuring at least 300 on July 13, 1987.

    12.The "Friday the 13th virus" infected hundreds of IBM computers across Great Britain on Jan. 13, 1989. This is one of the most famous early examples of a computer virus making headlines.

    13. Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, 1996.

    13 Supersitions about Friday the 13th


    1.There is at least one Friday the 13th every year, but no single year has more than three.

    2.Months with a Friday the 13th always begin on a Sunday.

    3.The longest period that can occur without a Friday the 13th is 14 months.

    4.Legend has it if 13 people sit down to dinner together, one will die within the year. In France, diners can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.

    5.Friday is said to be the day when Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit, Abel was killed by Cain and Jesus Christ was crucified.

    6.Many cities do not have a 13th Street or 13th Avenue.

    7.Many buildings don't have a 13th floor.

    8.Most airports skip having a 13th gate and airplanes a 13th row.

    9.Many hospitals do not have a room number 13.

    10.If you have 13 letters in your name, you have the devil's luck - Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer and Theodore Bundy all have 13 letters in their names.

    11.There are 13 twists of the rope in a traditional hangman's noose and 13 steps leading up to the gallows.

    12.In Formula 1 racing, there is no car with the number 13. The number has been removed after two drivers were killed in crashes, both driving cars numbered 13.

    13.An urban myth states the Brittish Royal Navy tried to dispel the superstition that sailing on Friday was bad luck. They built a ship named HMS Friday. On its maiden voyage, the vessel left dock on a Friday the 13th, and was never heard from again.


    Do you believe in the Friday the 13th superstitions?


    http://dexter.patch.com/articles/fri...ition-102f0a39
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  2. #2
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    At the Warren Theaters in Wichita and Oklahoma there is no auditorium 13.

  3. #3
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    Some buildings don't have a 13th floor in the elevator listing eventhough there really is one. They just skip it.

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Is Friday The 13th As Unlucky As Many Believe?

    Today is Friday the 13th, a date many people associate with bad luck, but is Friday the 13th as unlucky as many people believe?

    Not likely, but don’t tell that to someone who hides under the covers every time Friday the 13th rolls around on the calendar because that person probably suffers from paraskevidekatriaphobia, the scientific word for someone who has a fear of Friday the 13th.

    It’s derived from the Greek words for Friday and thirteen with phobia, or fear, tacked on.

    There are many theories about why Fridays which fall on the 13th day of the month are unlucky.

    Some believe that the Friday the 13th superstition has an origin in Norse mythology. In one story, the evil god Loki is said to have crashed a party with 12 guests and tricked the blind god Hod into killing his brother Balder, the god of light, joy and reconciliation.

    Also, according to Norse mythology, it was the Vikings who decided a hangman’s noose should have 13 loops and in British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.

    Others believe Friday the 13th has origins in Christianity. According to the Bible, Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and there were 13 men at the Last Supper — Jesus and his 12 disciples. In addition, Judas the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table and, for that reason, 13 is considered to carry a curse of sorts.

    At some places it is also believed that it was Friday the 13th when Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit.

    Another significant piece of the legend is a particularly bad Friday the 13th that occurred in the Middle Ages. On this day in 1306, King Philip of France arrested the revered Knights Templar and began torturing them, marking the occasion as a day of evil. Both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment.

    In Numerology, every number has a particular meaning. The number 13 symbolizes “Death”. It’s a picture of a skeleton with a scythe, reaping down men.

    Tradition also has it that God confounded languages at the tower of Babel on a Friday the 13th, and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed on a Friday the 13th.

    Friday is named for Frigga, the goddess of love and fertility who was exiled in shame to a mountain and labeled a witch. Some believe that every Friday, Frigga held a meeting with 11 other witches and the devil – a group of 13 – and plotted ill deeds for the upcoming week.

    By some estimates, businesses lose millions of dollars on Friday the 13th because people are hesitant to make deals, travel or shop as they would at other times.

    In France, a dinner for 13 is thought to be unlucky, and superstitious hosts may hire a “quatorzieme,” a professional 14th guest.

    Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue and there is no gate 13 at many airports, the numbers go from twelve to fourteen.

    The state lotteries of France, Italy and elsewhere never sell tickets with the number 13.

    The fear of 13 has also prompted most high-rise buildings not to have a 13th floor. Hotels do not have room number 13.

    But no matter what the origin, the fact is that many people are superstitious about the number 13 and are highly superstitious when it falls on Friday.

    Any month’s 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday.

    http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/12/13...-many-believe/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Most of the buildings in Toronto do not have a 13th floor.

  6. #6
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Flight 666 Flew Straight to HEL on Friday the 13th. No, Really

    There’s no better day than Friday the 13th to tell someone you despise to go to hell. Especially when you can give them an actual itinerary to do so on flight 666 no less, because a Finnish airline did all of that today.

    In a story we first came across at Gizmodo, it was reported in the Daily Mail that flight AY666 from Finnair took off from Copenhagen today and landed in Helsinki, or as it would appear in its abbreviated form on an airline ticket HEL. And yeah, you better believe flight 666 to HEL was non-stop.



    This wasn’t some special promotion though, but rather just a quirk in the flight of AY666 that sometimes happens, like when the plane flew on Friday the 13th last May. Although, we think it was in poor taste for the pilots to wear hockey masks…

    We’re kidding about the masks. Unfortunately.

    In fact, it seems like everything went smoothly. The plane took off just a minute late, but landed nine minutes early, and no passengers were sacrificed to Satan while in the air.

    We don’t have confirmation, but our best guess is that the in-flight movie was Jason X (because that’s the one where he flies in space), all of the passengers on board were served deviled eggs, and only death metal was available for their listening options.

    Oh, and since this was flight 666 to HEL, we’re going to guess that there was definitely a fee for a carry-on, because only the actual devil himself could have come up with an idea so evil.

    Would you have been too scared to take this flight? Or would you have insisted on sitting in the 13th row?


    http://nerdist.com/flight-666-flew-s...3th-no-really/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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