Today is friday the 13th... despite being symbolically linked as a supernatural and 'unlucky' day in western mythology and folklore, I think friday the 13th is a good day. As far as I could remember, all the fridays of the 13th I have had encountered were good auspicious days. So is 13th an unlucky number? I don't know, if you search at wikipedia, it says that:
The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia,[1], a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή) (meaning Friday), anddekatreís (δεκατρείς) (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (φοβία) (meaning fear). The term is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple phobia (fear) of the number thirteen appearing in any case.
So, this superstition is an imported 'culture' from the west, Malaysia at one time; known as Malaya, was ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch and finally the English. Due to our colonial history, Friday the 13th has made an impact and is assimilated into our local culture and folklore. I personally don't believe in this, but comparing this with another one of many Chinese superstition, it's akin to the Chinese people having a similar phobia with the number 4. No 4 sounds like the word 'death' in the chinese phonetics.
So, any chinese people you would know will happily avoid houses, apartment units, buildings, streets beginning with no. 4. Amazing isn't it. Whereas the Malay people love number 4. Why? Because if you look at it, the no.4 looks like someone sitting comfortably with legs crossed. There is a Malay term for this: 'Goyang Kaki' it means shaking legs literally but it actually means 'Easy livelihood'. And All cultures agree that no. 7 is an auspicious number.
It is amazing how cultures meet and collide. It's diaspora throughout the world is amazing and because of it, we have a myriad of taboos and superstitions. Anyone feeling lucky today then?
