I always
confuse Friday the 13th with the plot line from Nightmare on Elm Street. I
usually blend together the stories and characters into one film that I don’t
quite remember seeing when they first came out. I know Friday the 13th came out
originally in 1980, which was an entire year before I was born. Growing up I
saw bits and pieces when I wasn’t suppose to as my older cousins were watching.
I never actually saw the entire series until 2012 when N.Y.C. was hit hard by
Hurricane Sandy and I was home from work for an entire week, as my building was
flooded. No movie was scarier than that life experience.
I am now
remembering how one of my older, wiser, cousins’ thought it was funny when we
were all playing in his basement to put on the Jason mask, shut the lights, and
terrify me. Perhaps that is why my wires are crossed about these films.
Last
night strangely enough, as I was thinking about writing this blog, I was in the
car and passed by a street sign that made me immediately remember Jason’s last
name!
I realize
that they are spelt differently, however his full name is Jason Voorhees. The
timing of things sometimes is so random.
Anyways
now I have once again straightened the facts out. I know Wes Craven didn’t work
on the Friday movie series and Freddy Krueger was either an alleged child
rapist who may have been produced as a result of his mother’s rape. Jason
drowned at the camp where he subsequently began killing people. Oh by the way-
spoiler alert. Each of these movies and the many titles they produced have
created a very lucrative horror film industry.
As I was
thinking about the upcoming Halloween weekend it dawned on me that I never
truly knew why the date, Friday the 13th was supposed to bring such bad luck. I
know that most, if not all, hotels do not have a thirteenth floor. I learned
that in the strangest way possible when I was fourteen. I was in Orlando,
Florida on a family vacation and the only ride I cared about was The Tower of
Terror. They did an awesome job on the details. You begin in a car going
through the hotel as the story of its last known guests is being told. You find
out what happened the last time someone went on the thirteenth floor and then
before you know it you are being dragged up and down so fast the trees outside
feel too close for comfort. I could have gone on that thing more than once but
the same could not be said for my dad. His hands were shaking so bad when we
got off he could barely light his cigarette. For my fellow Tower lovers be
ware this ride is closing permanently on January 2, 2017.
I hate to
be a Debbie Downer but technically speaking buildings always have a thirteenth
floor if there is even one more floor past twelve. They just are not labeled as
such. That my dear friends is just mere trickery. Although within the building
I work we do not have one technically either.
I wanted
to know where this urban legend began and if at one point there were enough
people skeptical that led to this nationwide paranoia.
Dr. Simon
Bronner of Penn State University believes:
“Friday the 13th is just a convenient
milestone for people who are looking to trace bad luck to a certain cause—but
there’s nothing special about the date itself. After all, the number 13 is
apparently considered lucky some countries, like Italy, he adds.” For Italy is
it Friday the 17th (which can’t be right because I am half Italian and my
birthday falls on the 17th) that is forewarned. For Greeks it is Tuesday the
13th. However I do not know the
stories behind those legends.
Dr. Phil
Stevens, from the University at Buffalo told Time Magazine:
“While
folklore historians say it’s tough to pinpoint exactly how the taboo came to
be, many believe it originates from the Last Supper, and the 13 guests who sat
at the table on the day before the Friday on which Jesus was crucified.”
Charlotte
Alter also published a piece in Time about this topic. She writes:
“The
first specific written reference to Friday the 13th as an unlucky day was in an
early-20th century novel by Thomas W. Lawson, called Friday, the 13th.
Ironically, a ship named after Lawson was caught in a storm and shipwrecked on
the night of Friday the 13th, 1907.” That certainly was unlucky.
If you
want to figure out how many Friday the 13ths are in a year you don’t have to
take out a calendar and start counting. “Any month that starts with a Sunday
will contain a Friday the 13th, and there can be as many as three of them a
year.” In 2015 there was in fact a total of three. But 2016 only had one this
past May.
There are
several well know celebrities born on the thirteenth that may think the date is
pretty lucky, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for example. Ironically enough it was
also Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday and name of his first film.
To play
devil’s advocate here one very good thing that happened on a Friday the 13th
was when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law regulations that made
gender discrimination illegal. The day was October 13, 1967.
But I
suppose it was those behind the movie Friday the 13th that have had the best
luck with this so called day of terror. In today’s currency they made
approximately $738 million dollars. Not too shabby. It interests me to think
they may have religion to thank for promoting the horror that people apparently
couldn’t stay away from. Another spooky film where religion and horror meet is
The Exorcist. Consider a double header and as Dateline says “don’t watch
alone”.
In
closing I hope as always that this week’s Find Out Friday was informative and
particular festive for the season.
I will be
off next weekend so you will have to wait two weeks for the next Find Out
Friday post. Hopefully that will give you all a chance to start submitting some
ideas for the future.
Have a
happy and safe Halloween and be grateful today is Friday the 21st.
For More
Information:
Comments
Post a Comment