Daily Broadside | 31 Memes for Friday the 13th

Today is Friday. Today is also the thirteenth. It’s also 2020. Anyone have a bio-hazard suit made of chainmail I can borrow for the day?

Instead of fulminating on politics or the zany antics of our garbage press, how about we just continue on with the Friday the 13th theme? I’ll keep it light for those of you who have paraskevidekatriaphobia (which might have been what Joe Biden was trying to say).

A little research gives us some clues about how Friday the 13th developed its reputation as a sinister day, but nothing conclusive. One supposition is that it’s associated with the Last Supper. Jesus Christ met with his twelve disciples, including Judas, who betrayed Him, on Thursday evening. That makes 13 present at the meal, before Judas left to go tell the chief priests where they could find Jesus. They promptly arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and crucified him the next day, which was Friday.

So the Last Supper may have been the event on which fear of Friday the 13th is based. But I can tell you that neither Jesus, his disciples, the apostle Paul, nor the Bible supports such a superstition (1 Timothy 4:7).

But the fear and loathing of Friday the 13th has had a real effect on us.

What began as a Christian interpretation launched into a phenomenon that leads some modern Americans to avoid staying at hotel rooms with the number 13, beware of venturing up to the 13th floor of any building or try not to sit in the 13th row in airplanes, Stevens says. “The number 13 became a problematic number because of the number of people at that table during that fateful event,” he says.
— Time, May 12, 2016

To be completely honest, I notice when I encounter the number 13. But why should I? Any rational person would tell you that it’s no different than the number eleven or the number three. There isn’t any rational reason to be afraid of the number 13. But I notice because I’ve been conditioned to notice by the culture. Worse, at some level, I’ve believed the conditioning.

Which is why, to close out this week on this inauspicious day of this infamous year, I think we should laugh at Friday the 13th.