INCOME EVERY MONTH

although most of us would probably affirm that superstition's role in
Western culture is now a much diminished one, more a source of
amusement than anything else, there are still those who allow their
trepidation over particular days or dates to prevent them from
engaging in their choice of activities. We may make jokes about Friday
the 13th and only kiddingly instruct loved ones to exercise greater
care on that day, but those who suffer from a fear of the number
thirteen (triskaidekaphobia) or a fear of Friday the 13th
(paraskevidekatriaphobia) may genuinely feel limited by the rumored
potential for ill luck connected with the date. The reasons why Friday
came to be regarded as a day of bad luck have been obscured by the
mists of time — some of the more common theories link it to a
significant event in Christian tradition said to have taken place on
Friday, such as the Crucifixion, Eve's offering the apple to Adam in
the Garden of Eden, the beginning of the Great Flood, or the confusion
at the Tower of Babel. Chaucer alluded to Friday as a day on which bad
things seemed to happen in the Canterbury Tales as far back as the
late 14th century ("And on a Friday fell all this mischance"), but
references to Friday as a day connected with ill luck generally start
to show up in Western literature around the mid-17th century: "Now
Friday came, you old wives say, Of all the week's the unluckiest day."
(1656) From the early 19th century onward, examples abound of Friday's
being considered a bad day for all sorts of ordinary tasks, from
writing letters to conducting business and receiving medical
treatment: "I knew another poor woman, who lost half her time in
waiting for lucky days, and made it a rule never to . . . write a
letter on business . . . on a Friday — so her business was never done,
and her fortune suffered accordingly." (1804) "There are still a few
respectable tradesmen and merchants who will not transact business, or
be bled, or take physic, on a Friday, because it is an unlucky day."
(1831) Friday was also said to be a particularly unlucky day on which
to undertake anything that represented a beginning or the start of a
new venture, thus we find references to all of the following
activities as endeavors best avoided on Fridays: Needleworking: "I
knew an old lady who, if she had nearly completed a piece of
needlework on a Thursday, would put it aside unfinished, and set a few
stitches in her next undertaking, that she might not be obliged either
to begin the new task on Friday or to remain idle for a day." (1883)
Harvesting: "My father once decided to start harvest on a Friday, and
men went out on the Thursday evening, and, unpaid, cut along one side
of the first field with their scythes, in order to dodge the malign
fates which a Friday start would begin." (1933) Laying the keel of, or
launching, a ship: "Fisherman would have great misgivings about laying
the keel of a new boat on Friday, as well as launching one on that
day." (1885) Beginning a sea voyage: "Sailors are many of them
superstitious . . . A voyage begun [on a Friday] is sure to be an
unfortunate one." (1823) Beginning a journey: "I knew another poor
woman, who . . . made it a rule never to . . . set out on a journey on
a Friday." (1804) Giving birth: "A child born on a Friday is doomed to
misfortune." (1846) Getting married: "As to Friday, a couple married
on that day are doomed to a cat-and-dog life." (1879) Recovering from
illness: "If you have been ill, don't get up for the first time on a
Friday." (1923) Hearing news: "If you hear anything new on a Friday,
it gives you another wrinkle on your face, and adds a year to your
age." (1883) Moving: "Don't move on a Friday, or you won't stay there
very long." (1982) Starting a new job: "Servants who go into their
situations on Friday, never go to stay." (1923) In some cases, Good
Friday (the Friday before Easter) was regarded as an exception or
'antidote' to the bad luck usually associated with Friday beginnings:
"Notwithstanding the prejudice against sailing on a Friday . . . most
of the pleasure-boats . . . make their first voyage for the season on
Good Friday." (1857) "It was accounted unlucky for a child to be born
on a Friday, unless it happened to be Good Friday, when the event was
counterbalanced by the sanctity of the day." (1870) The origins of the
connection between the number thirteen and ill fortune are similarly
obscure. Many different sources for the superstition surrounding the
number thirteen have been posited, the most common stemming from
another Christian source, the Last Supper, at which Judas Iscariot was
said to have been the thirteenth guest to sit at the table. (Judas
later betrayed Jesus, leading to His crucifixion, and then took his
own life.) This Christian symbolism is reflected in early Western
references to thirteen as an omen of bad fortune, which generally
started to appear in the early 18th century and warned that thirteen
people sitting down to a meal together presaged that one of them would
die within the year: "I have known, and now know, persons in genteel
life who did, and do, not sit down to table unmoved with twelve
others. Our notion is that one of the thirteen so partaking, will die
ere the expiry of the year." (1823) "The old story runs, that the last
individual of the thirteen who takes a seat has the greatest chance of
being the 'doomed one'." (1839) Superstition held that the victim
would be the first person to rise from the table (or the last one to
be seated), leading to the remedies of having all guests sit and stand
at the same time, or seating one or more guests at a separate table: "
. . . Miss Mellon always gave the last comer an equal chance with the
rest for life . . . she used to rise and say, 'I will not have any
friend of mine sit down as the thirteenth; you must all rise, and we
will then sit down again together.'" (1839) "Every one knows that to
sit down thirteen at a table is a most unlucky omen, sure to be
followed by the death of one of the party within the year . . . Some
say, however, that the evil will only befall the first who leaves the
table, and may be averted if the whole company are careful to rise
from their seats at the same moment." (1883) " . . . so far is this
feeling carried that one of the thirteen is requested to dine at a
side table!" (1823) (The "thirteen at the table" form of superstition
again harkens back to the Last Supper: the one who left the table
first, Judas Iscariot, died at his own hand soon afterwards.) More
generally, groups of thirteen people in any context — at a table, in a
room, on a ship — were believed to inevitably lead to tragedy: "On a
sudden an old woman unluckily observed there were thirteen of us in
company. This remark struck a panic terror into several who were
present . . . but a friend of mine, taking notice that one of our
female companions was big with child, affirmed there were fourteen in
the room . . ." (1711) "Notwithstanding . . . opinions in favour of
odd numbers, the number thirteen is considered as extremely ominous;
it being held that, when thirteen persons meet in a room, one of them
will die within the year." (1787) "Many will not sail on a vessel when
[thirteen] is the number of persons on board; and it is believed that
some fatal accident must befall one of them." (1808) By the late 19th
century the superstition surrounding thirteen had become even more
general, with people going out of their ways to avoid anything
designated by the number thirteen, whether it be hotel rooms, desks,
or cars: "'Look at that,' said Parnell, pointing to the number on his
door. It was No. 13! 'What a room to give me!'" (1893) "For some time
before the late War I went almost daily to the British Museum reading
room . . . I gave some attention to the desks left to the last comers
. . . there was a very marked preference of any other desk to that
numbered '13'." (1927) "The mechanic helped him get out [of the racing
car]. 'May as well scratch,' he said. 'He won't be good for anything
more this afternoon. It's asking for trouble having a No. 13.'" (1930)
Once again these ill omens were avoided through artifice, such as the
renumbering of rooms in hotels and inns to eliminate any Room #13's,
and misnumbering the floors above the 12th floor in multi- story
buildings so that tenants could pretend 13th floors were really 14th
floors. Just as Friday was considered an inauspicious day of the week
on which to embark upon a new enterprise, so the 13th day of a month
came to signify a particularly bad day for beginning a venture.
Although regarding the confluence of a particularly unlucky day of the
week (Friday) and a particularly unlucky day of the month (the 13th)
as a date of supreme