Here is the more long winded version of this morning's Thought for the Day (which you can find in its spoken form here, at either 20 minutes in or 80 minutes, devoid of any mention of Yellowhammer or the B-word for fear of winding up one side or the other...) If truth be told I was more fearful of tripping over my tongue in the first sentence than anything else.
Good morning, especially to all paraskevidekatriaphobics... Those cowering under the duvet because today is Friday the 13th... With that tongue-twister coming from the Greek words Paraskeví meaning "Friday", dekatreís, meaning "thirteen" and phobic meaning “fear.”
There are many explanations for today being perceived as unlucky, including the arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday 13th October 1307, although that was first suggested in the middle of the 20th century, before being given greater credence via various conspiracy theories. Actually there are no records of any superstitious fear of this day until the 19th century, with some attributing its spread to a 1907 novel Friday the Thirteenth, where an unscrupulous stockbroker uses various superstitions to create a Wall Street panic on that day. So perhaps today is not the day to invest heavily in the markets...
But its largely in north western Europe and the English speaking world that Friday the thirteenth has this reputation. For Spanish and Greek speakers, Tuesday the 13th is the day to avoid, while in Italy its Friday the 17th. And in Chinese culture there are various combinations of days and dates that are regarded as less auspicious.
There’ve been medical studies looking at correlations between Friday the 13th and the accidents, with British studies demonstrating no significant link. Indeed a Dutch report in 2008 suggested that Friday the 13th sees fewer accidents and reports of fire or theft than on other Fridays, perhaps because people are more careful or simply stay home.
Of course it isn’t always possible to hide in bed on Friday the 13th, or 17th if you’re Italian, or indeed on any day we dread, whether that is due to a superstitious phobia or on more rational grounds. In the Bible, God repeatedly tells people not to fear, and for some time there was a pervading myth circulating on social media that this command occurs 365 times... enough for every day of the year, auspicious or not... It doesn’t actually... It occurs at most around 156 times... But that is still pretty frequent...
And we need to hear it frequently because fear is pervasive and poisonous. Sadly it is increasingly the currency of many news platforms and political positions. Some fears are founded in reality (including some of those raised by the Yellowhammer report this week... Yesterday I awoke to a cheery message from my firstborn son in Glasgow who said “Good morning, just read the Yellowhammer paper and given insulin is a refrigerated medicine with a short shelf life thought I’d say it was nice knowing ya!” Followed by a cheery thumbs up emojii... He did go on to say not to worry because he was sure that a certain organisation would make a fortune smuggling legal drugs across the border... He may not have inherited my diabetes, yet, but he has inherited my black sense of humour... The producer for Good Morning Ulster however felt that this sense of humour might not be shared by all listeners and feared a long list of complaints from people worried about where their drugs might come from in the wake of a potential no deal Brexit). Other fears, such as paraskevidekatriaphobia, are utterly irrational, and sadly others are frequently fabricated for nefarious reasons (as some would claim that many of the Yellowhammer predictions are as part “Project Fear.”) It isn’t always easy to discern which is which, and for that we need wisdom. But in the wake of that of the we need to take steps to mitigate the reasons for rational fear were possible; and with the irrational and fabricated fears we need help to face them down.
Usually the command to “fear not” is paired with the assurance that God is with us... That assurance is not a blithe promise that bad things won’t happen on this or any other day of the year, it is a reminder that God is a remainer... only insofar as God remains with us, today, tomorrow and forever... whatever might happen.
Shalom
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