Friday the 13th!!

I guess I’ve always been slightly paranoid about train journeys (not unnecessarily, I’ve had my share of rotten experiences) and hence I never travel alone. And I realized today is Friday the 13th!! And I’m going to be on a train tonight!
Well I don’t usually believe in superstitions.. naah.. they’re just stupid.. though I might believe in jinxes and ‘touch wood’ n all.. (they’re REAL!!)..
But couldn’t help Googling abt ‘Friday the 13th. As usual found a cornucopia of stuff..

So many legends behind one superstition.. Ctrl+Ved from Wiki..

The most interesting and easily the most gruesome one was about the Knights Templar.. (sounds familiar?? Yeah yeah Da Vinci Code).
The Knights Templar were a monastic military order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 C.E., whose mission was to protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades. Over the next two centuries, the Knights Templar became extraordinarily powerful and wealthy. Threatened by that power and eager to acquire their wealth, King Philip secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France on Friday, October 13, 1307 - Friday the 13th! And probably massacred them all..

Another interesting but kinda silly legend goes like :
The actual origin of the superstition, though, appears also to be a tale in Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil - a gathering of thirteen - and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week.

LOLZ.. Can’t blame her.. poor thing was named Frigga!! Frigga?? Hehe..

And there’s a truckload of folk-lore revolving around this.. Google it up.. it ranges from fascinating to mildly interesting to down-right mundane.. (there was something about a stock-market crash .. that Black Friday one that we all kno abt.. but still, after stories of Witches and Kings , this one sounded lame.. )

But this little para made me sigh in relief..

For many, the number 13 was considered a lucky number (such as 13 lunar cycles each year), but with the efforts of Christianity attempting to degrade all things Pagan, they promoted 13 as an unlucky number, with Friday thus also being considered a bad day of the week.
(Btw,Pagan is a term given to nature-worshippers.)



So, today is actually lucky for Pagans.. I’m soooo Pagan.. (at least for today) well I believe in ‘touch wood’ n all.. This started off as an old Pagan ritual – the ancients used to tap or knock at trees for invoking tree Gods and tree-dwelling nymphs and fairies to bless them with good fortune and that slowly turned into the ubiquitous ‘Touch Wood!’.

Nyways, bottom line.. though it’s Friday the 13th, I’m safe..

uh..Touch Wood!!