Unlucky Friday
This lodge meets on a Friday, as do many others. We know that Friday has been
considered an unlucky day since at least the 14th century, the only day of the week
singled out as such. We are told never to begin a new venture on a Friday. Never
change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams. If you cut your nails on Friday, you
cut them for sorrow.
Bad things happen often on a Friday, many are beliefs that cannot be confirmed:
o Eve ate the apple on a Friday.
o Last supper held on a Friday.
o The Great Flood began on a Friday.
o God tongue-tied the builders of the Tower of Babel on a Friday.
o The Temple of Solomon was dedicated and later destroyed on a Friday.
o In pagan Rome, Friday was execution day, thus Jesus was crucified on a Friday.
As such, it is accordingly a fast-day in the Roman Catholic Church.
In Spain, Friday is an unlucky day; yet, it is esteemed by Buddhists and Brahmins. The
old Romans called it nefastus, from the utter overthrow of their army at Gallia
Narbonensis. And in England the proverb is that a Friday moon brings foul weather.
In the modern era, Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and
other disasters; including the Glorious Revolution, the Haymarket affair, the Battle of
George Square, the Red River Flood, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Of
course, bad things happen on other days of the week, too; but we seem remember
them more if it happens on a Friday.
Sailors are well-known for their superstitions. Sometime in the 19th century, the Royal
Navy attempted to disprove the notion that beginning a voyage on a Friday was certain
to bring bad luck. The HMS Friday had her keel laid on a Friday, she was launched on a
Friday, commissioned on a Friday, her crew was selected on a Friday and she set sail on
her maiden voyage on a Friday, under the command of good Captain James Friday. She
was never seen or heard from again. While this story has been widely circulated; it is, in
fact, untrue. The Royal Navy has taken great pains to dispel this myth, there was never
a ship named HMS Friday in the British Fleet.
Unlucky Thirteen
Now let us turn our attention to the number thirteen. In numerology, the number
twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of
the year, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus,
twelve gods in Olympus, and so forth. Twelve is complete, natural, and perfect. Twelve
easily divided into two, three, four, and even six.
Thus, thirteen was considered
irregular, beyond the normal bounds of things, transgressing this completeness.
We are reminded that there were thirteen present at the Last Supper. Soon afterwards,
Judas betrayed Jesus, setting the stage for the Crucifixion, then hung himself from a
tree. This may be the origin of the belief that thirteen people sitting down to dinner is
unlucky; the first to leave is expected to die within a year. In Paris, quatorziens or
fourteeners were often hired to be the fourteenth guest for large dinner parties, to
protect them from this unlucky fate.
The Turks so disliked the number thirteen that it was practically expunged from their
vocabulary. Many state and national lotteries exclude the number altogether.
Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a
13th floor. Many hospitals have no room 13. Many airlines do not have a row 13 on
their planes, while some airport terminals do not have a 13th gate. Of course, the 14th
floor and 14th row are actually the 13th, despite what they are labeled.
Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo,
who confessed to being the Boston Strangler and killing 13 women; all these men have
13 letters in their names. By this standard, Jonathan Davis is the only brother we need
to keep an eye on. I think we'll all call him Jon from now on.
In Norse mythology, Baldur was the son of Odin and Frigga. Baldur was the most
beautiful of the gods and most beloved by Odin. As a youth, he led a happy life and
eventually married the goddess Nanna. Soon, however, Baldur began to suffer from
terrible dreams that threatened him with death. Fearing for his safety, Frigga asked
everything in creation to take an oath not to hurt Baldur. Only the mistletoe plant was
excluded, as Frigga thought it too young to take an oath.
Twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla, amusing themselves by throwing
things at Baldur, as they knew nothing could harm him. Loki, the god of mischief, had
not been invited, so he crashed the party and brought the total to thirteen. He
approached Baldur's blind brother Höd, the god of winter, and asked why he was not
throwing things at Baldur like everyone else. Höd replied he could not see Baldur, and
besides, he had nothing to throw. Loki then handed Höd a dart he made from mistletoe
and offered to guide his hand as he threw it. The dart struck Baldur, killing him
instantly. This is another example of thirteen people at a dinner party being bad luck.
Thirteen is so unlucky that in 1881 the Thirteen Club was founded by Captain William
Fowler (13 letters) to improve the number's reputation. At their first meeting, the
charter 13 members walked under ladders to enter a room covered with spilled salt.
This club lasted for many years and at one time had more than a thousand active
members across the U.S. and in Europe. Among its members were five U.S. Presidents:
Chester Arthur (13 letters), Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley and
Theodore Roosevelt.
Ancient civilizations are not unanimous regarding the number 13. In the time of the
pharaohs, Egyptians considered life as a quest for spiritual ascension which unfolded in
stages — twelve in this life and a thirteenth beyond, thought to be the eternal afterlife.
The number 13 therefore symbolized not a death of dust and decay but a glorious and
desirable transformation. The Chinese regard the number 4 as unlucky instead, and
phone numbers with series of 4's are often refused.
There are exceptions to unlucky thirteen. Twelve does represent completeness, but
there are in fact thirteen lunar months in a year. There were thirteen original colonies,
which has inspired the design of the great seal, with thirteen steps in the pyramid,
thirteen olive branches, thirteen arrows, and thirteen stars and stripes.
You may be asking, is there a Lodge No. 13 in our Grand Lodge? Yes, Staunton No. 13
in Staunton, Virginia; which has not seen any ill effects from having this number. In
fact, ten members of the lodge have served as Grand Master of Masons in Virginia,
more, in fact, than any other lodge.
Perhaps it just a coincidence, but during my research I noticed the comments section of
an article, and at the bottom it said: Displaying 12 of 13 posts. There was no link for
the thirteenth.
Very Unlucky Friday the Thirteenth
We have established that Friday is unlucky, and thirteen is unlucky, what horrors await
us on Friday the Thirteenth? At least ten percent of Americans believe Friday the
Thirteenth is unlucky. Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their
normal routines in doing business, taking flights or even getting out of bed. The actual
term for this is a word you might expect to hear from our Worshipful Master –
"friggatriskaidekaphobia". Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom Friday
is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen.
A 2004 study found that the U.S. economy loses $800 to $900 million dollars on this
day each year. Despite this, neither Delta nor Continental Airlines suffer a noticeable
drop in travel on those days.
Consistently fewer people drive their cars on Friday the 13th, but the number of
hospital admissions due to auto accidents is significantly higher than on other Fridays.
The risk of hospitalization due to an auto accident may increase by as much as 52
percent. Staying at home is recommended; but, you are already here.
There is always one Friday the 13th in a given year; while 2009 saw three, 2010 and
2011 have only one. Statistically, in each 400-year cycle of the Gregorian calendar, the
13th is actually more likely to fall on a Friday that any other day of the week.
Interestingly, there is another tale from Norse mythology that is relevant to our
discussion. As I mentioned, Friday is named for Frigga, the wife of Odin and 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. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as Witches'
Sabbath.
Interestingly, my research shows that the bad luck of Friday the Thirteenth is actually a
very modern invention. It doesn't even merit a mention in the 1898 edition of Dictionary
of Phrase and Fable, and according to folklorists, there is no reference to "Friday the
13th" before the 19th century.
Incidentally, Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, is regarded as an exception or
'antidote' to the bad luck usually associated with Friday beginnings.
In Spanish-speaking countries, instead of Friday, Tuesday the 13th is considered a day
of bad luck, commonly referred to as 'Martes y trece'. Constantinople fell to the
Ottomans, ending the Byzantine Empire. It happened on a Tuesday in 1453; thus, the
Greeks also consider Tuesday to be unlucky.
Knights Templar
The event that is usually given credit for the origin of friggatriskaidekaphobia occurred
in 1307, and involves The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of
Solomon, better known as the Knights Templar. They were a monastic military order
founded in Jerusalem in 1118. Their original mission was to guide and protect Christian
pilgrims along the path from Europe to Jerusalem during the Crusades. Through this
mission, the Templars developed a banking system to protect the finances of the
traveling pilgrims, and then expanded this system throughout their holdings in Europe.
King Philip the Fair of France had accrued a large debt to the Knights Templar for many
years of service. He had nearly depleted his money due to his ongoing battles with
England. King Phillip was also envious of the Knights Templar and their rise to power,
so he devised a plan to arrest all the Knights Templar and charge them with crimes so
devastating that no person or group would come to their defense. The charges against
them were religious in nature and backed by Pope Clement V, who also envied the
influence and power held by the order.
King Phillip's plan had to be swift and carefully put together so as to not alert the
Templars. His orders were sent a month in advance to the King's Men and other Bailiffs.
They were not to be opened till dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307. The charges against
the Templars were of the highest accusations of heresy: that the Knights Templar asked
members to spit on the cross and step on it, to deny Christ, to perform homosexual
acts, and so on. The king's orders were to engage and arrest every Templar in France knights, sergeants, priests, and other brethren. All Templar outposts, homes, wineries,
mills, and castles were to be taken in the name of the King of France and Pope Clement
V. This nationwide arrest was widely successful, and medieval torture tactics were used
to obtain confessions from the Knights. For seven long years, hundreds of Templars
were tortured to extract confessions, and over a hundred died during incarceration.
Finally, King Phillip planned to disgrace the Templars in as public a manner as possible.
In front of Notre Dame Cathedral, Grand Master Jacques De Molay would publicly admit
to heresy. Unfortunately for the King, the beaten but not broken De Molay ascended
the stage, apologized to the people assembled and his fellow Knights for his weakness
and told them all their confessions had been coerced. He then disavowed his signed
confession and testified that he, his men, and all Templar Knights were innocent of the
charges against them. King Phillip was so angered by De Molay's actions that he
ordered him and his second in command, Guy of Auvergne, burned at the stake.
Jacques De Molay's dying words were to curse King Phillip and Pope Clement V,
claiming that by the year's end they both would meet their demise. Both men did,
indeed, die within the year.
During this period, those Knights who had escaped the King and Pope found themselves
without the protection of the Order they had served in their entire adult lives, as well as
being excommunicated from the ONLY Christian Church that existed at the time.
Consider that for a moment – you are a member of a monastic order that is fanatically
loyal to the Catholic Church, and suddenly you are longer welcome in that church, and
facing certain imprisonment and possibly death if captured. Many Knights fled north,
into England and Scotland to live out their lives in exile.
We are all familiar with the accepted origin of our craft: Operative stone masons who
built cathedrals all across Europe, developed guilds with modes of recognition to allow
them to prove their level of experience (fellow of the craft, master craftsman) when
starting a job in a new city. Eventually, these guilds allowed non-operative or
"speculative" masons to join their fraternity. By the time the Grand Lodge of England
went public in 1717, only speculative brethren remained.
Another theory, popularized by historian John J. Robinson in his book "Born in Blood",
was that the exiled Knights Templars used modes of recognition to identify themselves
and sympathetic countrymen along the way; allowing a Knight to find safe passage
while moving further north. Many Masons prefer this explanation, as it gives us a direct
link to a proud and honorable fraternity that dates back 900 years.
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite comprise the 4th through 32d degrees that
originated in various European countries, mostly France and England. Albert Pike, a
prominent Scottish Rite Mason of the 19th century, did much of the research involved in
compiling these degrees into their current form. The 29th degree, or Knight of Saint
Andrew, relates the story of Knights Templars who safely arrived in Scotland and met
once again as brothers.
Order of DeMolay
In 1919, Frank S. Land was a Scottish Rite Mason in Kansas City, Missouri. He came to
know a young man, Louis Lower, who lost his father at 16. With 8 of his friends, they
started a youth organization with Dad Land as their mentor. While searching through
Dad Land's library for a name, the boys read a book about the Scottish Rite that
detailed the history of Jacques De Molay. And so the largest fraternal organization for
young men was born, the International Order of DeMolay.
One final story to relate: In 1981, a young man joined the Order of DeMolay with his
high school friends. The lessons of the fraternity, and the direction it gave to his life,
inspired him greatly, and kindled his curiosity about the larger Masonic fraternity that
gave rise to and sponsored this organization. As soon as he could join the lodge at 21,
he did; joining other organizations along the way. So it was that he, a Senior DeMolay,
was privileged to help confer the 29th degree for the first time in many years in the
Norfolk Valley of the Scottish Rite, along with several other Senior DeMolays, all now
Masons, all playing the part of exiled Knights Templars, followers of Jacques De Molay.
And so it is that he was privileged to stand here tonight, and deliver this paper to his
brothers, this evening. Thank You.