This is the season of Halloween and this week, we experience the first of two Friday the 13th’s in 2019.
What in the western world would make a joyous day like Friday have an unlucky context twice a year?
The technical name for fear of Friday the 13th is “Triskaidekaphobia.” If you can pronounce that, then you shouldn’t be afraid of anything. So to change up this column a bit, I decided to do some research.
The results are interesting.
One explanation is that on Friday, Oct. 13, 1307, hundreds of the Knights Templar were arrested in France, tortured and burned at the stake. The Knights Templar were popular during the Crusades, but had become a political risk to the French nobility and the Pope. So they were neutralized on this day in a horrible manner.
There was also the Thirteen Club, which first met on Sept. 13, 1881. The members’ goal was to debunk superstitions, so their antics like seating 13 to a table, spilling salt everywhere and walking under ladders added to the mystique. I imagine the Thirteen Club members
all had black cats as
pets, but this is my own theory.
There was a wacky stockbroker named Thomas Lawson, who wrote a best-selling book in 1907 called “Friday the Thirteenth.” The book bashed the stock market. The media likes eccentrics – because they are interesting – so this group of kooks got a lot of free press.
The devotion to the superstition became a frenzy in 1980 when a character named Jason in the movie “Friday the 13th” slashed and hacked his way into the fears of young people who could identify with his Crystal Lake summer camp mayhem.
Ari Lehman played Jason Voorhees and Kevin Bacon played Jack Burnell. There have been eleven of these horrible movies, with the last epic entitled “Freddy vs Jason.” The Freddy character first appeared a few
years earlier in the “Halloween” franchise – starring Robert Englund –
who really needed a manicure and no less than Jamie Lee Curtis as the female lead. The “Freddy” series also had eleven movies, so maybe we should start a new superstition featuring the number eleven.
So if you have had enough of this history, there are two important events this week.
It is the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attack and we should remember all the poor souls who died or were injured including the first responders.
There is also the next Democratic debate, which will be held on ABC tonight from 8-11 pm. Thankfully, only ten candidates made the cut and the debate will be held on one night only.
Whatever your party affiliation or political leaning, it is important to watch. The ideas exchanged and the differences in candidates positions will eventually be debated after the parties choose their final candidates next summer.
The first primary is just around the corner.
What interesting times we live in.