Committee for Lorne: Superstitions

Superstition: “… a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation … or … an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition.”

Who can forget [or haven’t heard played] ‘Superstition’? — Stevie Wonder’s 1972 song ranked #12 in Rolling Stones 2021 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  With apologies to Stevie, I have changed his fifth line from ‘Thirteen-month-old baby’ to suit the purpose of this article. 

“Very superstitious

Writing’s on the wall

Very superstitious

Ladder’s bout to fall 

Thirteenth day’s a Friday

Broke the looking glass

Seven years of bad luck

The good things in your past”

For those with a superstitious streak … Note: Tuesday, October 31st [Halloween] is fast approaching … we have just negotiated another super-superstitious day: Friday 13th.  That said, many may be unaware that there is an extra ‘kick’ to Friday 13th October, as opposed to Friday 13th on any other old month!

The conjunction of Friday with the 13th of the month comes around [on average] every 212 days … or 1.72 times/year.  But the even rarer combination of Friday the 13th with October occurs only once every few years, the most recent Friday, October 13th to pre-date this year’s ‘fateful date’ being in 2017.  The next won’t occur till 2028.

The superstitious significance of Friday 13th October harks back to 1307 when Phillip IV of France issued his infamous order to arrest every Templar Knight in France.  The Templars, a once all-powerful ‘holy’ fighting force — often described as “the most formidable Christian Crusader soldiers the world had ever seen” — were caught by complete surprise and were [literally] carted off to prison.  Tortured and tried in a sham court process for heresy, sodomy, and other sacrilegious offences, they were all judged guilty and then burnt en-masse at stakes set up on the outskirts of Paris with Phillip and his court looking on with satisfaction.  

The superstitious warning “… don’t open your doors or go outside” … has been attached to every Friday 13th thereafter, no matter the month, though Friday 13th in October holds added significance.  Who could blame you if, on this most recent Friday, October 13th — just over a millennium past that first fateful day in 1307 — you had turned to your bookshelf to select and re-read Dan Brown’s conspiracy pot-boiler, ‘The Da Vinci Code’!

The number 13 [+/- Friday] attracts other superstitious conspiracies: Jesus was crucified on a Friday [though it is thought to have been on 3rd April AD 33], while there were 13 disciples at the Last Supper — the traitorous Judas being 13th at the table. 

The number 13 is also considered unlucky in Norse mythology, one source noting that “… when 12 gods were invited for dinner in Valhalla by the god Balder but the trickster god, Loki, was omitted, Loki arranged for god Hödr to shoot and kill Balder.  When the arrow hit home, it is said that the earth darkened and mourned”.  Ever since, the number 13 has been a fateful number in Viking mythology. 

Halloween, October 31st, is another peak day in the superstitious calendar and is nearly upon us.  In just a few short days, the footpaths of Lorne will reverberate to the patter of tiny ghoulish feet as the local kids get out and about in their finest ghoul-wear. 

While the 31st is clearly not the same as the 13th, there is still one really weird conjunction of 13 and 31 beyond the fact that they contain the same two numbers, I and 3.  The linking oddity is a prime number — Belphegor’s Prime — named for Belphegor, one of the seven princes of hell.  Belphegor’s prime [NB: a prime number is only divisible by itself or by 1] is the only known palindromic prime [one that reads the same forwards as it reads backwards] was discovered by Harvey Dubner.  It contains 31 numbers, has a 1 at each end, and 13 zeros on either side of 666, the devil’s number.

So … no wonder 13 is an ‘iffy’ number!  

Finally, Halloween is just around the corner, and its superstitious origins are worth considering.  As the History Channel tells us [https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween], “… Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in)”.

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1st.  This was the day that traditionally marked the end of summer and the harvest, while it signalled the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year often associated with human death.  Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead blurred, the gates to the underworld briefly opened, and the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. 

Their Druids built huge sacred bonfires to commemorate the event, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.  During the celebration, the people would dress in costumes, typically of animal heads and skins, and attempt to tell each other’s fortunes.

The mouth of a cave — the Cave of Oweynegat — is believed in legend to be the Gateway to the Otherworld and is near the ancient Celtic centre of Cruachain of Connaught, the ancient seat of the kings of Connacht in northwest Ireland.  An astounding 240 archaeological sites and monuments can be seen in the area, their age ranging from 4,000 BC to AD 400. 

Celtic mythology says that on Samhain eve [October 31st], Otherworld creatures emerged from Oweynegat to ravage the countryside.  Herein lies the origins of Halloween.

I am not, by nature, particularly superstitious.  But I am always wary of a ladder, preferring to go around and not under it.  I go cross-eyed if I sight a black cat [or, here in the Otways, a black panther] … and if a black cat should appear on Halloween, I am ready to completely dissemble!  I throw salt [NB: rock salt if available] over my left shoulder to ward off ill luck — as my mother taught me to do … or even better, I seek wood to touch [but always unvarnished and unpainted where possible].

John Agar – Feature Writer

A word from the Chairman