Oh Crikey It Is Friday 13th

It almost slipped by without me noticing but it is Friday 13th! Should I be worried?

Oh Crikey It is Friday 13th!

Friday 13th? I have no qualms about doing anything on that day, I am not superstitious.

Oh come on, I hear you say. Everybody has a thing about Friday 13th don’t they?

Even Geoffrey Chaucer said that it was bad luck to start a project or journey on a Friday. Actually, and here is a useless fact for those of you who collect them, there is a name for fear of Friday 13th – Paraskevidekatriaphobia – from the Greek words paraskeví (meaning ‘Friday’), and dekatreís (meaning ‘thirteen’).

Friday 13th not An Unlucky Day In Italy

No, I have no concerns about Friday 13th because in Italy they don’t recognize it as an unlucky day. In Italy Friday 17th is considered unlucky and the number 13 is a lucky number!  Oh, hold on a mo though … it is unlucky to have 13 people round the table in Italy (reference to the Last Supper here of course).

Oh cripes, now things are getting complicated. Don’t know why I started this really.

Just to reinforce the contrariness of these ‘bad luck’ obsessions, in the UK a black cat crossing your path is seen as lucky – whereas in Italy a black cat is a sign of bad luck… That reminds me of my blog post on the difference between Italian and UK sayings. Sigh… So many things you can get wrong – but only if you worry about that sort of thing which I don’t!

This post was originally posted in 2016 and edited and republished on 13 May 2022.

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

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