“I’m a superstitious girl. I’m the worst in the world. Never walk under ladders. I keep a rabbit’s tail. I’ll take you up on a dare.
Anytime, anywhere...” Des’ree sang in her award winning song Life and today, many people will be living on the superstitious side of life because it’s Friday the 13th.
For those too busy trying to live life, this day may just be like any other on the calendar but for the superstitious ones, today may be one of those solid unlucky days!
So real is the fear of Friday the 13th -Friggatriskaidekaphobia which comes from Frigg, the Norse goddess of wisdom after whom Friday is named, and the Greek words triskaideka, meaning 13- that the flight travel industry reports the worst turn outs on these days as people try to avoid activities that may attract jinxes, some celebrities cancel out shows that land on Friday 13th for fear that their fans may be too busy dealing with the jinx it brings, then there are the regular superstitious people who will avoid black cats and ladders as much as they can.
But it is not without basis that people hold such a fear for this fateful day because some unusual happenings have taken place on Friday the 13th.
Top of the list would be Princess Diana’s death at the 13th pillar of the in Paris and Tupac Shakur’s death which happened on a Friday 13th in 1996.
For a long time after Tupac’s death, his fans kept commemorating while staying sceptical of the date.
With the legend gone, the jinx behind the 13th became even more popular that musicians sang about it and movies were scripted around the idea.
The movie Friday the 13th has had 13 movies scripted after it with “Part II” (1981), “Part III” (1982), “Part IV: The Final Chapter” (1984), “Part V: A New Beginning” (1985), “Part VI: Jason Lives” (1986), “Part VII: The New Blood” (1988), “Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan” (1989), “Jason Goes to Hell (1993),The Final Friday, Jason X (2002), Friday the 13th sequel (2015), which earned $14,343,976 (Sh1.49 billion), $15,935,068 (Sh1.65 billion), and $13,121,555 (Sh1.3 billion), respectively.
And while some people are scared stiff hoping that the mythological jinx associated with the date does not come true, we have celebrities whose dates of birth fell squarely on the 13th and perhaps that’s a sign that not everything about the 13th is jinxed.
The Olsen Twins, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, who started out as child actresses and are now the Full House fashion moguls and they have repeatedly mentioned that the 13th is a great number to them.
Kat Dennings the witty actress in Two Broke Girls was also born on the exact date as the Olsen twins and has no reservations about the 13th affirming that if she did, then her whole life would be a jinx, something it clearly isn’t.
On the contrary, some celebrities love the 13 so much and this would be the likes of Taylor Swift who is obsessed with the number 13, so much so that she even used to write the number on her hand for every performance.
For her, it’s more of a lucky day and she once admitted that, “I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. My first #1 song had a 13-second intro, then every time I’ve won an award I’ve been seated in either the 13th seat, the 13th row, the 13th section or row M, which is the 13th letter.”
So for those who may be unsure how to handle the day and with the year only 2 weeks old, staying positive like Taylor Swift might just work for better.
Locally, our celebrities are too busy living life to think about the 13th in depth, with many adding that it’s just another day to put in the work for them.
“Ah! For me it’s just another day! I didn’t even think it was such a huge deal breaker,” Timmy Tdat told Pulse.
“I’ve heard that Friday the 13th has some jinx to it and some people even call it Friday the 13th but I don’t think too much about it.” Mwende Macharia a Radio personality added.
“I pray for all my days so I don’t quite believe in the myths that different days have, neither did I think that Friday 13th vibe was legit,” Hopekid laughed the jinx idea off.
