Today is October, Friday the 13th of 2006

Does everyone know why today is significant?

Just 699 years ago, the Knights of the Templar were attacked on this day.
On October the 13 (Firday) in 1307 the hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into "admitting" heresy. More here.

This is what formed the superstitous day of Friday the 13th throughout the rest of history.

What will happen today?

Originally posted by Techsnow
This is what formed the superstitous day of Friday the 13th throughout the rest of history.

I don't know if that is accurate. I was talking to a person from el salvador, and apparently the unlucky day for them (and I beleive that this was a hold over from spain, not native tradition) was like Tuesday the 11th or some such (anyway it was a day besides Friday the 13th). So why would the spanish not have the tradition?

Any germans on board? Is Friday the 13th unlucky?

What will happen today?

Why would this Friday October 13th be any different from the other Friday October 13ths?

Well Friday the 13th in the U.S. has always been associated with superstition (I don't know about Spain). I do not know if it is exactly because of what happened to the Knights of the Templar but I have my suspicions that that may be the reason. Reason for this being, it is suspected that the KoT formed into the Free Masons. If the Free Masons rule the U.S. then it is logical to assume that Friday the 13th would have been created by them to be a superstitious day because of what happened to them.

I don't think that americans invented the friday the 13th superstition. Masons don't rule america, though they used ot be very popular. The Knights Templar didnt' form the Freemasons, so thats a problem also.

I think that the old idea, that Friday the 13th is 'scary' because of the idea that there are 13 witches in a witches coven, and perhaps that they were though to meet on fridays, is a more likely explanation than that it has to do with the Knights Templar. If it was the Knights templar, it'd be europe wide, and exist in spain no?

It be interesting to see if the concept exists in germany, france, italy, etc. Perhaps the aredently catholic countries dont' consider it a problem, becaue the papacy made the orders.
Or perhaps one could explain it as the countries that refused to comply with the order, like england and germany, are the ones that fear the date. But I think that spain wasn't all that up on the idea in the first place.
It'd be intersting especially to see if the french have superstitions about Friday the 13th, since the french were the ones that pushed the pope to make the orders and especially carried them out.

TechSnow,
Thanks for taking time out of your day to point this out. As my name would imply, I "thought" I knew it all.....until now. That was the last fact I needed to truely Know It All!
I'll sleep much better this weekend.

I don't think anyone really knows why 13 is considered an unlucky number. Some think it goes back to the number of people at The Last Supper. And Friday was the day Jesus was crucified. So... Friday the 13th - double whammy.

A Friday occurring on the 13th day of any month is considered to be a day of bad luck in English and Portuguese-speaking cultures around the globe. Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece and Spain, for example, Tuesday the 13th takes the same role. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number thirteen.
Wikipedia source

There were traditionally 13 steps on a gallows and 13 turns in a hangman's noose also. Not that those could be the origin of 13 being an unlucky number.

here's a good National Geographic link to the history of Friday the 13th, with some Norse Mythology stuff.

well as far as what i've learned in my research, Yes this is why the 13th, is unlucky, because the templars were slaughtered on friday the 13th, HOWEVER it was in the spring time after the thaw not in oct.

This is not fact, this is only probable thought. it's believed that it most likely took place after the winter thaw but noones really certain.

I consider every Friday to be a good Friday, regardless of the date it falls on. Now those Monday the 13th's should be done away with

History records that It was Friday 13 Oct. 1307 that Phillipe le Bel ordered all
Templars in France to be arrested. He had had a practice run some months earlier
when he had all Jews arrested and deported. Their property was confiscated and converted to the crown. All debts they owed were abolished and all debts owed them
were collected by the crown. He tried but failed miserably to do the same with the
French Templars.

becaue the papacy made the orders

actually the original orders came from Phillipe not Clement. It was several weeks later
that clement sold out and issued his orders.

And Friday was the day Jesus was crucified

Some traditions say it was wednesday

most historical researchers that I have read tend to agree that it is the Templar event that this "superstition" stems from because they have found no significant
references prior to it.

And remember it was not only Templar Knights that were arrested in France but all
associated with the order.

Originally posted by stalkingwolf
History records that It was Friday 13 Oct. 1307 that Phillipe le Bel ordered all
Templars in France to be arrested. He had had a practice run some months earlier
when he had all Jews arrested and deported. Their property was confiscated and converted to the crown. All debts they owed were abolished and all debts owed them
were collected by the crown. He tried but failed miserably to do the same with the
French Templars.

becaue the papacy made the orders

actually the original orders came from Phillipe not Clement. It was several weeks later
that clement sold out and issued his orders.

And Friday was the day Jesus was crucified

Some traditions say it was wednesday

most historical researchers that I have read tend to agree that it is the Templar event that this "superstition" stems from because they have found no significant
references prior to it.

And remember it was not only Templar Knights that were arrested in France but all
associated with the order.

I will have to agree with all of this. It's historical fact that you can find in any book.
As far as I understand the fear of Friday the 13th came from the Templar's roundup by Philipe the fair. As time went on the #13 became known as bad/evil and then lead to witches and demons...etc

[edit on 14-10-2006 by corsig]

Originally posted by Nygdan
It'd be intersting especially to see if the french have superstitions about Friday the 13th,..

Indeed there is. There’s even a word for it. (warning: it’s a mouthful... Paraskevidékatriaphobie) The French wiki entry mentions the superstition comes from the Bible.

Friday may be considered unlucky because Christ is thought to have been crucified on a Friday, which was execution day among the Romans. Yet, Christians don't call it Bad Friday. Friday was also Hangman's Day in Britain. Some even think that Friday was the day God threw Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden, which is unlikely since the concept of Friday hadn't been invented yet.

Source: skepdic.com...

I first heard of the Templar connection in Marrs’ Rule by Secrecy. I imagine the biblical speculators might have preceded the Templars’ 1307 slaughter. Plus, the biblical stories were probably more widely distributed than the Templar’s legends.



[edit on 14/10/06 by ConspiracyNut23]

Someone pointed me to this article.

Why Friday the 13th Is Unlucky

From David Emery,
Your Guide to Urban Legends and Folklore.

The Unluckiest Day of All

The astute reader will have observed that while we have thus far insinuated any number of intriguing connections between events, practices and beliefs attributed to ancient cultures and the superstitious fear of Fridays and the number 13, we have yet to happen upon an explanation of how, why or when these separate strands of folklore converged — if that is indeed what happened — to mark Friday the 13th as the unluckiest day of all.

There's a very simple reason for that — nobody really knows, though various explanations have been proposed.

The Knights Templar

One theory, recently offered up as historical fact in the novel The Da Vinci Code, holds that it came about not as the result of a convergence, but a catastrophe, a single historical event that happened nearly 700 years ago.

The catastrophe was the decimation of the Knights Templar, the legendary order of "warrior monks" formed during the Christian Crusades to combat Islam. Renowned as a fighting force for 200 years, by the 1300s the order had grown so pervasive and powerful it was perceived as a political threat by kings and popes alike and brought down by a church-state conspiracy, as recounted by Katharine Kurtz in Tales of the Knights Templar (Warner Books: 1995):

"On October 13, 1307, a day so infamous that Friday the 13th would become a synonym for ill fortune, officers of King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Templars — knights, sergeants, priests, and serving brethren — in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, various obscenities, and homosexual practices. None of these charges was ever proven, even in France — and the Order was found innocent elsewhere — but in the seven years following the arrests, hundreds of Templars suffered excruciating tortures intended to force 'confessions,' and more than a hundred died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake."

A Thoroughly Modern Phenomenon

There are drawbacks to the "day so infamous" thesis, not the least of which is that it attributes enormous cultural significance to a relatively obscure historical event. Even more problematic, for this or any other theory positing premodern origins for Friday the 13th superstitions, is the fact that no one has been able to document the existence of such beliefs prior to the 19th century. If people who lived before the late 1800s perceived Friday the 13th as a day of special misfortune, no evidence has been found to prove it. As a result, some scholars are now convinced the stigma is a thoroughly modern phenomenon exacerbated by 20th-century media hype.

Going back a hundred years, Friday the 13th doesn't even merit a mention in E. Cobham Brewer's voluminous 1898 edition of the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, though one does find entries for "Friday, an Unlucky Day" and "Thirteen Unlucky." When the date of ill fate finally does make an appearance in later editions of the text, it is without extravagant claims as to the superstition's historicity or longevity. The very brevity of the entry is instructive: "A particularly unlucky Friday. See Thirteen" — implying that the extra dollop of misfortune attributed to Friday the 13th can be accounted for in terms of an accrual, so to speak, of bad omens:

Unlucky Friday + Unlucky 13 = Unluckier Friday.

If that's the case, we are guilty of perpetuating a misnomer by labeling Friday the 13th "the unluckiest day of all," a designation perhaps better reserved for, say, a Friday the 13th on which one breaks a mirror, walks under a ladder, spills the salt, and spies a black cat crossing one's path — a day, if there ever was one, best spent in the safety of one's own home with doors locked, shutters closed and fingers crossed.

Lets not forget that all associated with the Templars was siezed also including craftsmen
villages, mills, livestock,graineries etc.. much of which was later transfered to the hospitlars. Some of it was never transfered, some destroyed and some that was reclaimed by those who had donated it to the order.


Some superstitions have a basis in common sense if one stops to think about it.

Walking under a ladder for instance, would be very bad luck if a workman was on the
ladder and dropped a hammer or bucket of tar on your head.

A Black cat crossing your path might associate you with the cat and therefore with
witches as all cats and especially black ones were considered to be familiars and
messengers of satan. extremely bad juju if you were brought before the inquisition or
the asizes.

Stepping on a crack in a walk. Think not of todays poured concrete walks but of
cobblestone and flagstone walks or even walks of loose boards or logs. think of the
possibilities of twisted ankles,broken legs, or even just ending up face down in a mud hole in all your finery.

Salt, think of replacement cost And what the salt was used for. In a time before
refrigerators Salts main use was to preserve meat (along with smoking), a loss of salt could well cause a starving time which in a society that had little meat to start with might be fatal.

Originally posted by Nygdan



Any germans on board? Is Friday the 13th unlucky?

What will happen today?

Why would this Friday October 13th be any different from the other Friday October 13ths?

Yeh here im german, as to the unlucky day no clue really

I dont believe that friday the 13th an unlucky day is really.

Originally posted by stalkingwolf
Lets not forget that all associated with the Templars was siezed also including craftsmen
villages, mills, livestock,graineries etc.. much of which was later transfered to the hospitlars. Some of it was never transfered, some destroyed and some that was reclaimed by those who had donated it to the order.


Some superstitions have a basis in common sense if one stops to think about it.

Walking under a ladder for instance, would be very bad luck if a workman was on the
ladder and dropped a hammer or bucket of tar on your head.

A Black cat crossing your path might associate you with the cat and therefore with
witches as all cats and especially black ones were considered to be familiars and
messengers of satan. extremely bad juju if you were brought before the inquisition or
the asizes.

Stepping on a crack in a walk. Think not of todays poured concrete walks but of
cobblestone and flagstone walks or even walks of loose boards or logs. think of the
possibilities of twisted ankles,broken legs, or even just ending up face down in a mud hole in all your finery.

Salt, think of replacement cost And what the salt was used for. In a time before
refrigerators Salts main use was to preserve meat (along with smoking), a loss of salt could well cause a starving time which in a society that had little meat to start with might be fatal.

Stalkingwolf- I have to say that I am very impresed with your knowledge and quality of posts that you have offered to the group. I hope to see more of you around here to learn from.

I voted for you for the "way above" member of the month

Thank you- Cory

[edit on 15-10-2006 by corsig]

Corsig,
Thank You for your comment and vote. The Templars and superstition just happen
to be two of my favorite areas of study. Superstition , like myth and legend oft times
have some basis in fact. What seems silly to us today could well be deadly serious
to them.

But them picture telling someone just a hundred years ago that in a hundred years
people would have cell phones and PDA's. Or cellphones with PDAs in them.

Another Friday 13 with absolutely nothing unlucky happening. This day is getting an undeserved bad rap. Just because something bad may have occurred once on this day doesn't mean that it is an unlucky day...bad things have taken place on ptactically every date in the past. Wouldn't surprise me if a superstition developed for 9/11.

Superstitions swirling around Friday as being lucky or unlucky have existed since ancient times, beginning with the northern nations. Ancient Romans dedicated the sixth day of the week to their beautiful, but vain, goddess Venus, so, when the Norsemen adopted the Roman method of naming days, they naturally adopted Venus as their name for the sixth day of the week. Their closest translation for Venus, Frigg, or Freya, eventually evolved into Friday, a day they considered to be the luckiest day of the week.

From a religious standpoint, Muslims tout Friday as the day Allah created Adam, legend has it that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the apple, on a Friday, and later died on a Friday, and Christians consider Friday as the day on which Christ was crucified by the Romans.

The Scandinavian belief that the number 13 signified bad luck sprang from their mythological 12 demigods, who were joined by a 13th demigod, Loki, an evil cruel one, who brought upon humans great misfortune. The number 13, in the Christian faith, is the number of parties at the Last Supper, with the 13th guest at the table being the traitor, Judas.

Out of curiosity,did anything happen to you on Friday 13th?

The only remarkable thing about Friday 13 is how unremarkable and ordinary they always are.

It's a comedy to see how a society that considers itself so scientific and sophisticated will nevertheless skip the number 13 in many of its highrises. You amy notice, the next time you're in an elevator, that the floor buttons skip from 12 to 14. Yeah...right...very 21st century. Life's a comedy!

It was my daughters 7th birthday and I had to spend a ton of $$ on presents so that was bad.