{"id":48383,"date":"2022-05-13T10:39:04","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T09:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=48383"},"modified":"2022-05-14T12:04:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T11:04:06","slug":"happy-friday-13th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/happy-friday-13th\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Friday 13th"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Friday the 13th – a day which leaves most of us wary, but passes by without much notice, is like an extra Halloween for ghost hunters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most people who are a bit superstitious, Friday 13th is seen as a day of bad luck where you need to beware of walking under ladders or spotting a black cat. And make sure you don\u2019t break any mirrors. But according to Daniella Hodges – an experienced ghost hunter – there\u2019s a lot more to it than just crossing paths with someone\u2019s pet cat. Here are a few of her theories as to why Friday 13th is such an unlucky day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13 – an unlucky number<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number 13 has always been deemed as unlucky, and for many of us there is no specific reason why, but there are two ancient events which could explain it. Firstly, in the Bible, Judas was the 13th guest who arrives at the Last Supper and ultimately betrays Jesus. And secondly, in ancient Norse lore, they believe that evil and turmoil came into the world when the cunning god Loki arrived as the 13th guest at a dinner party in Valhalla, upsetting the balance of the 12 other gods already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frigg\u2019s Day and the lunar cycle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word Friday originates from Frigg\u2019s Day, which is also known as Freya\u2019s Day – a weekly celebration of Freya, the Norse goddess of love and fertility. If you tie this in with the 13 lunar cycles of the year – which in turn link to a woman\u2019s yearly menstrual cycle – you get a very female day on Friday 13th. And in the past men did not like this, so branded it as a day of bad luck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fall of the Knights Templar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going back to the 14th century, the Knights Templar – a military order set up in 1118 to protect Christian pilgrims on their journey to Jerusalem – were forced to relocate from their headquarters in Jerusalem\u2019s Temple Mount due to Muslim armies taking over and by 1303 they found themselves in Paris where King Philip IV of France decided to bring them down. On Friday 13th of October 1307, many of them were arrested and burnt at the stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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