The Day Hispanics Fear Is Martes 13, Not Friday 13 – Here’s Why
It’s Friday the 13th in the United States, and there’s a saga of horror movies to commemorate the occasion. However, in Spanish-speaking countries, the feared date is Tuesday the 13th, not Friday.
Martes 13 is, without a doubt, the day to stay put and keep an eye out for evil’s acts.
“Ni te casas, ni embarques, ni de tu casa de apartes,” the old proverb advises (“don’t marry, don’t set sail, don’t go far from home”).
But what is it about the charming and chubby number 13 that has led to certain structures omitting the floor number entirely? Several theories have been passed down down the years and can now be found on the Internet. Here are a few examples:
1) Christian literature claims that Jesus had 12 apostles, however others believe Judas to be apostle 13. Judas Iscariot, along with the expelled number, proceeded down the road of infamy after selling his Master for a purse of money.
2) Both the Kabbalah and Scandinavian folklore name 13 malevolent spirits.
3) The antichrist and the beast are discussed in Chapter 13 of the Bible’s Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse.
4) On Tuesday, April 13, 1204, the Fourth Crusade conquered Constantinople.
5) The number 13 is associated with death and unending agony in the Tarot.
The evidence for evil Tuesday appears to be based on the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans, which also occurred on a Tuesday (May 29, 1453) and had a significant influence on the Christian world.
Tuesday is a word derived from the name of Mars (the planet is known in Spanish as “Marte”), which was known in the Middle Ages as “the little wicked.” Because Mars is also the god of war, Tuesday was said to be ruled by the god of destruction, blood, and bloodshed.
Furthermore, tradition has it that the Tower of Babel’s language confusion occurred on a Tuesday the 13th.
When it comes to Friday’s origins as an unlucky day, most people point to Good Friday, the day Jesus was killed. Others speculate that the belief stems from Chaucer’s 14th-century work The Canterbury Tales, in which Friday is depicted as a day of disaster.
In any case, as the International Business Times has pointed out, Wall Street has cultivated a phobia of Friday the 13th for decades. According to the journal, on Oct. 13, 1989, Wall Street experienced the second-largest loss in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in history.
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