October 13

Today is Friday the 13th. Popular culture has attached to any Friday the 13th a reputation for being quite unlucky. Do I buy that? Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s hard for me to say whether it is any more unlucky than any other Friday. Friday the 13ths are slightly more common than, say, Friday the 12ths. However, being ‘common’ isn’t necessarily unlucky is it? It’s boring perhaps but not particularly unlucky. In 1307, October 13th fell on a Friday and for the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, popularly referred to as the Knights Templar; it was a particularly unlucky day. In France, King Philip IV ordered that all Knights Templar be arrested. Once in custody the Knights, after some rather brutal questioning, admitted their heresy and were burned at the stake. That rather makes you question just how King Philip acquired the nickname “Philip the Fair.”