Luck of the Draw
By Charabis
Good luck, bad luck, made luck, sad luck, how lucky do you feel? It seems appropriate to focus on luck on Friday the 13th, since many folks predict that bad luck reigns supreme on this day. Yet just how true is that?
Perhaps it would help to examine the origins of the belief. Many people think it was none other than the Vikings that started the whole business. Of course, this legend involved the actions of none other than Loki. He crashed a party with 12 guests in tow, and tricked Hod, the blind god, into killing his brother Balder, the god of light and joy. Hey, nobody ever accused the Vikings of being happy folks!
Britain might also be the birthplace of the Friday the 13th fears. In the old days, they would typically hold the public hangings on Fridays. The second part in this case is often attributed to the belief that there were 13 steps leading to the gallows.
Could Christianity have something to do with it? After all, Christ was said to have been crucified on a Friday, and there were 13 apostles at the last supper, no?
Yet the most commonly accepted origin takes place in the Middle Ages. Anyone else notice how many bad things happened then? :P It was said that on Friday the 13th, 1306, King Philip of France ordered the Knights Templar arrested. They were tortured and, as they were highly revered across the land, marked it as a day of great evil.
No matter what the real reason is, some people genuinely fear the day, and will call in sick and stay in bed all day to avoid it. There are a lot more of those folks than most people realize. Heck, even those who don't hide under the covers all day tend to be hesitant about making business deals, traveling, or even going shopping, costing businesses millions of dollars in revenue.
I guess in that respect, perhaps Friday the 13th may only be unlucky for the merchants, so we can't call this an advertising gimic. After all, they advertise to make money, not lose it.
Oh, and don't bother with carrying a lucky rabbit's foot as they don't work. Think about it. He had four of them and where's he at today? :P
So are you feeling lucky? Then come tell us about it on our forums!
