Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
WHENEVER the 13th of any month falls on a Friday, the day is associated with myths and bad omens in some cultures.
Any calendar year has at least one Friday the 13th but can have as many as three.
This year has one, August 13 which was last Friday.
Last year Friday the 13th was in March and November while in 2019 it was in September and December. There will be one Friday 13th in 2022 in May.
Any month that starts on a Sunday will have a Friday the 13th. The day is associated with bad luck and fear and has been given various uncommon names in the western world.
Friday the 13th inspired a late 19th-century secret society, novels and the 1980s Friday the 13th horror franchise film where a fictional killer character Jason Voorhees was thought to have drowned as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake and decades later, the lake is rumored to be cursed and causing a series of mass murders.
It is not clear though when associating Friday the 13th with bad things began but indications are that the myth has been around for centuries.
Some believe the bad luck dates back to the tragedy of hundreds of Trials of the Knights Templar, a powerful religious and military order formed in the 12th century for the defense of the Holy Land who were arrested on Friday 13 October 1307 and executed by men sent by Philip IV of France who wanted to take over their wealth.
A number of events have occurred on Friday the 13th and have been associated with bad luck. Some of them are German bombing of Buckingham Palace (September 1940), the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York (March 1964), a cyclone that killed more than 300 000 people in Bangladesh (November 1970), the disappearance of a Chilean Air Force plane in the Andes (October 1972), the death of rapper Tupac Shakur (September 1996) and the crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy which killed 30 people in January 2012.
People believe that it is bad luck to be born or to bear a child on Friday the 13th, while being rejected or divorced on the day is also thought to be bad omen.Some fear travelling on Friday the 13th.
Friday the 13th superstition is believed to be rooted in western culture.
Bulawayo based traditionalist Mr David Mhabhinyana Ngwenya said myths around Friday the 13th are foreign to African tradition.
“What we have in our culture are things known to be taboo like going to the fields on a Wednesday in the western side of the country and on Thursday in the eastern side. This Friday the 13th is a culture from elsewhere,” said Mr Ngwenya.
He said common beliefs that people still follow include believing that a new moon has power to cleanse bad luck and cause a person to heal by merely calling out “phu kholiwe hamba lomkhuhlane wami (new moon may you heal me.)”
There are related myths associated with walking under a ladder, crossing paths with a black cat, breaking a mirror, walking backwards while entering a room and others that some people believe are sources of bad luck.
An academic, Dr Oswelled Ureke, who is a senior lecturer in the department of Media, Communication, Film and Theatre Arts at Midlands State University, concurred with Mr Ngwenya saying Friday the 13th superstition is an issue Bantu speaking Africans have learnt from association with western cultures.
He said Friday the 13th could be an opportunity for research as there is no known study around the issue.
“From an African perspective, and conscious of various ethnic differences, this issue of Friday the 13th doesn’t have any substance as far as any Africa culture that I know is concerned. In our African culture we never had encounters associated with dates because our calendar was based on observing the moon and sun for time. In fact, African cultures have no attachment to such and all Bantu speaking people have a common way origination of issues including how things, space and times are perceived,” said Dr Ureke.
According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, more than 80 percent of high-rise buildings in the United States do not have a 13th floor while some hotels and hospitals reportedly avoid using the number for rooms and gates as well.
There is also a belief that having 13 guests on the same dinner table courts death, and the interpretation is rooted in Jesus’ Last Supper with his 12 disciples including Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
Pastor Travina Chichoni of the Methodist Revival Church said while Friday the 13th is not preached about in church, myths and rituals are significant to any religion.
He said myths have no effect on people because Jesus conquered death and the dark world when he died on the Cross.
“We are aware of Friday the 13th but as Christians we don’t naturally teach about it. We study such myths in our prophetic and dream interpretation studies so that we can guide and counsel people. The symbol 13 means revolting against divine law or deflecting from divine government, being Jesus the King.
“As Christians we conscientise people, for example about pandemics like Covid-19 in which we believe God is communicating something to the world hence we conscientise people through our phenomenology studies,” she said.-@ncubeleon
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