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Days of the week
The belief in lucky and unlucky days is very old and appears to have been originally taught by the magicians of ancient Chaldea. The natives of Madagascar have since the earliest times believed in lucky and unlucky days of birth, and in previous times if a child was born on what they considered the unlucky day, it would be killed.
The ancient Greeks believed that the 13th day was unlucky for sowing, but favorable for planting. Many early peoples harbored the superstitious belief that it was best to sow seed at the full of the moon. Others maintained that it was best to gather in the harvest when the moon was full. Still others regarded the crescent moon as a fortunate omen. Even today in South Africa, many people consider it unlucky to begin a journey or undertake a work of importance during the last quarter of the moon.
The Romans marked their lucky days with a piece of chalk, their unlucky days with charcoal. From this custom of marking unlucky days with charcoal started the phrase "black-letter day." Today, "black-letter days" are generally ones remembered with regret because of some unfortunate occurrence connected with them.
"Blue Monday" is an old phrase still in general usage. In early days those whose business circumstances forced them to work on Sunday, the official day of rest, were considered entitled to a holiday on Monday. On Monday, therefore, while others were back at work, the people who worked on Sunday had a day of rest. Because the churches throughout Europe were decorated with blue on the first Monday before Lent—which was a holiday or "lazy day" for everyone—the day of rest throughout the rest of the year for the Sunday workers came to be known as "Blue Monday." Although the term is still used, now when people speak of a "Blue Monday," they most often wish to convey that they feel lazy, tired, or would rather be on holiday than at work.
The origin of the superstition concerning Friday is traced by most authorities to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (c. 6
B.
C.
E.–c. 30
C.
E.) on that day. But some writers advance the theory that Friday is regarded as an unlucky day because, according to ancient tradition, it was on Friday that Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit and were cast out of paradise.
Followers of Islam try to avoid beginning any new enterprise on Wednesdays. For reasons long forgotten, Wednesday is seen as a bad day. Even today, many Muslims avoid even getting their hair cut on that day. And such important occasions as weddings are never scheduled for a Wednesday.
A familiar old rhyme preserves the old superstitions concerning the personalities of various children on various birthdays: "Monday's child is fair of face,/Tuesday's child is full of grace,/Wednesday's child is sour and sad,/Thursday's child is merry and glad,/Friday's child is loving and giving,/Saturday's child must work for a living,/But the child that is born on Sunday/Is blithe and bonny, good and gay."
Mythological stories including number 13
The origin of unlucky day is easy to understand if we check two symbolic stories where the number 13 is the best known from. In Christianity Jesus spent his last supper with his 12 disciples forming a group of 13. The happenings after the last supper leaded to the crucifixion of Jesus.
Balder
The God of light and innocence The other story comes from the Norse mythology and is told to be the reason why Vikings never ate with 13 people in the dinner table. Valhalla was enormous hall located in Asgard, what was the country of the Norse Gods. Honorary banquet was held in Valhalla for Balder who was the God of light innocence. Loki, the God of mischief heard about this and entered the banquet as unwanted 13[sup]
th[/sup] guest. Later Balder dies because of the actions of Loki.
Balder was told to be the best, so fair and bright that even the light shines from him. The both of these happenings explain the origin of number 13 as unlucky number. It is easily understandable but as mythological stories often have the symbolism we can try to understand the number 13 in different way too. In both stories, in the Bible and in the Norse mythology the story concentrates around one extremely good person and one less good person. Why cannot we understand the number 13 to describe Jesus and Balder? The number 13 would have totally different meaning in that case.
Number 13 had a meaning before the time of Norse mythologies or Christianity. In ancient Egypt number 13 represented the stage of a person after the death. The person had to accomplish the transformation to accomplish spiritual completion or to reincarnate back on earth to develop oneself. In Greece mythology Zeus was the 13[sup]
th[/sup] god and the God of the other Gods, and ancients Mexicans had 13 snake gods. Number 13 was clearly liked, maybe because there are 13 moons in one calendar year and observing the sky was important for the people "without electricity".
