Its Friday

Legend has it that if 13 people sit down to dinner together, one will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck like Jack the Ripper and Charles Manson.

In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular and therefore transgressing this completeness.

The superstition can be traced back to Norse mythology. Apparently Friday was named after Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil - a gathering of thirteen – to plot ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches' Sabbath."

Others say Friday's bad reputation goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It was supposedly on a Friday that Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit. Tradition also holds that the Great Flood began on a Friday; God tongue-tied the builders of the Tower of Babel on a Friday; the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday and of course, Chris was crucified on a Friday.

In Britain, both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment. Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.

Ultimately, the complex folklore of Friday the 13 doesn't have much to do with people's fears in this century. If you think about it, bad things, big and small, happens all the time. But if you get in an accident, lose your wallet or even spill your coffee, you’ll probably blame it on today. After all, it’s Friday the 13.

If I should die before I wake

It’s the 21 century and we embrace it with open arms. As the human race progresses, we pride ourselves as being democratic, cultured and urbanized. We’ve certainly come a long way from our ancestor’s, from clicking stones to start a fire, to clicking a mouse to purchase groceries. But if you stop and take a look around, are we truly civilized?

Just take a look at the Israeli-Palestinian war. The conflict can be traced back to the late 19th century and I’m sure they will continue their fight into the 22nd century. Obviously we still haven’t learned much after 200 years. Where is the development of human race? Oh wait, I guess we did progress from a certain point of view… we do not need to throw sticks and stones now. It’s all about rockets and mortar shell fire and the burden of peace now falls on others such as the US, Europe and Arab allies. Even with these countries at play, real peace cannot be obtained until the Israelis and Palestinians are able to rise to a level of strategic, forward-looking maturity thinking.

Were we different from our forefathers? Yes, we have tall building and can fly across continents in matters of hours but our values have regressed. In fact our hopes and faith have diminished to the point that people don’t believe in miracles, not even if it’s being performed right before our very eyes! Israelis and Palestinians do not win wars because of their military prowess; they won the wars because they refused to surrender. Not to fight meant certain destruction, and, despite impossible odds, they simply did what they did without thinking about the probable outcome.

Imagine life in a warfare country, the agony, ambiguity and slaughtering. Civilian are dying everyday while world leaders are sitting behind their desk with misguided search for world peace. We are educated fools who create wars and injustice and then trying to find a solution for the very same issues we created. With greater development and sophistication in guns and weapons technology, we may be wiping ourselves out of this planet even before a decent peace solution can be conceived. I may just perish without ever knowing……….