This week brought the third request in which a gentleman first suggested Friday and then, a few lines later, settled on Saturday instead. Not just any Friday. This Friday. The 13th.
Nobody said it out loud. One wrote "maybe the 14th works better after all", another "let's play it safe". I had to smile, because he hadn't noticed how much that little sentence gave away. Of course I rearranged things anyway. If you'll arrive at the door more relaxed on the 14th, then the 14th it is.
Why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky
I wanted to know where it actually comes from, and one evening I went further down that road than I'd planned. Twelve has always stood for completeness, twelve months in a year, twelve apostles around Jesus. Thirteen is the number that breaks that order. At the Last Supper there were thirteen at the table, and the thirteenth was Judas. In Norse myth, Loki turns up as the uninvited thirteenth guest at a feast of the gods, and the feast ends with a death. Friday, in turn, was the day of the crucifixion and was long considered a bad day to travel or to marry.
People also like to bring up the arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday, 13 October 1307. Historians are more cautious about that connection. The pairing of Friday and thirteen only really took off in the 20th century, helped along by an American novel bearing exactly that title. Ever since, some hotels have no 13th floor and some aircraft have no row 13. I found no evidence anywhere that more actually goes wrong on this day.
A car key, a storm drain and a kiosk in Stuttgart
My own story is a few years old now. I was standing next to my car in Stuttgart, bag in one hand, coffee in the other, when the key slipped through my fingers. It didn't simply land on the pavement. It dropped precisely through the grate of a storm drain with a soft clack I can still hear today.
I stood there feeling rather helpless until the owner of the corner kiosk came out. He looked at the situation, disappeared without a word, came back with a piece of wire and a hook, and fished until my key lay dripping in front of me. When I tried to thank him, he just shrugged: "Friday the 13th, young lady. What did you expect?"
Until that moment I hadn't once looked at the date.
Bad luck or an excuse? An escort date in Stuttgart on the 13th
Ever since, I've wondered whether this day really brings bad luck or whether we simply look more closely on it. If my key falls down a drain on a Tuesday, I'm clumsy. On Friday the 13th, I have a story. Perhaps on this day we're all quietly waiting for the slip, so we can blame it on the calendar afterwards. And anyone nervous before a date will find a reason on any day of the week. One gentleman once described that feeling to me very openly, you can read it in Er wollte absagen. Fünf Minuten vor dem Klopfen.
On my Friday back then, something good actually happened. A stranger knelt on the asphalt for my key without my having to ask. If that was an unlucky day, I'll gladly take a few more.
For this week's three gentlemen, the 14th it remains, and it's a wonderful day. And anyone brave enough to book today will find that nobody in Stuttgart holds the date against him.
Now I'm curious how you handle it. Below you'll find a short, anonymous poll. Honest answers are explicitly welcome, the superstitious ones most of all.
Discreetly yours,
Lena