There's a school of thought which talks about how perfect the number 12 is. It says we've 12 months in a year, 12 hours on the clock, 12 disciples of Jesus Christ, 12 successors of the Prophet Muhammed and so on. However the number 13 was considered to make the counting numbers of 1 to 13 very irregular, spoiling the completeness of the number 12. This same belief explains why Jesus met his demise which coincidentally happened on a Friday. As to whether it was the 13th day of the month no one knows. according to the bible, 13 people, Jesus and his 12 disciples, dined at a table. Judas, the 13th person to join the table, sold out Jesus to the Romans. That 13th person brought upon him his demise. Hence the saying,
"You should never sit down to a meal in a group of 13."Another group of people say on one Friday the 13th in the 14th century King Philip of France arrested the Knights of Templar and tortured them marking it as the day of evil.
In British tradition, Friday was conventionally set aside for public hangings and there were 13 steps leading to the noose.
So do these theories evidently make Friday the 13th real? Bad thing behalf certain people on this day. They may be involved an accident or probably lose their jobs. This makes them uphold their beliefs about this day. They say it's real. Others have been able to come up with accident stats which show that Friday the 13th records the highest number of accidents esp. vehicular accident. Well i could sort of relate to that. Here in Accra, Ghana when the N1 (Aflao - Elubo motorway) was completed i have hardly been a second witness to accidents on this route. However, today Friday the 13th, during my daily usage of this route i saw an accident situation where i normally exit this highway and i heard of two other fatal incidents which probably happened behind me a couple of minutes i passed, and the day had barely started. Could there have been more that i didn't hear of? Were there bad happenings around the world today? well i have not tuned in to the news on the radio yet to hear of bizarre misfortunes which may have happened around the world. Hmm...as i type this piece i turned to my left and heard my colleague scream,
"Could this be real? This is very bad! At this time of the year?"I asked myself,
"Could this be the kind of bad news this eventful day brings?"The bearer of news called to tell my colleague that he the news-bearer had lost his dad. This is very devastating. R.I.P to the souls that cease to exist on this earth on this eventful day. But is this Friday the 13th or any other normal day?
Well this is what i think. Misfortunes may befall us at any time of the day, any day of the month and any time of the year. There's no day set aside for bad events to beckon at our doorsteps.
Don't we hear of fatal accidents on any other day?? Is it only on Friday the 13th that high numbers of vehicular accidents are recorded? Is Friday the 13th fiction? I will leave this for you to decide!
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
"Bad things happen to those who wish bad for themselves."
PARASKEVIDEKATRIAPHOBIA = Fear of Friday the 13TH
