The belief in lucky and unlucky days appears to have been first taught by
the magicians of ancient Chaldea, and we learn from history that similar
notions affected every detail of primitive Babylonian life, thousands
of years before Christ. Reference to an “unlucky month” is to be found
in a list of deprecatory incantations contained in a document from the
library of the royal palace at Nineveh. This document is written in the
Accadian dialect of the Turanian language, which was akin to that spoken
in the region of the lower Euphrates; a language already obsolete and
unintelligible to the Assyrians of the seventh century B. C.[406] Certain
days were called _Dies Egyptiaci_, because they were thought to have been
pronounced unlucky by the astrologers of ancient Egypt.
In that country the unlucky days were, however, fewer in number than the
fortunate ones, and they also differed in the degree of their ill-luck.
Thus, while some were markedly ominous, others merely threatened
misfortune, and still others were of mixed augury, partly good and
partly evil. There were certain days upon which absolute idleness was
enjoined upon the people, when they were expected to sit quietly at home,
indulging in _dolce far niente_.[407]
The poet Hesiod, who is believed to have flourished about one thousand
years B. C., in the third book of his poem, “Works and Days,” which is
indeed a kind of metrical almanac, distinguishes lucky days from others,
and gives advice to farmers regarding the most favorable days for the
various operations of agriculture. Thus he recommends the eleventh of
the month as excellent for reaping corn, and the twelfth for shearing
sheep. But the thirteenth was an unlucky day for sowing, though favorable
for planting. The fifth of each month was an especially unfortunate day,
while the thirtieth was the most propitious of all.
Some of the most intelligent and learned Greeks were very punctilious
in their observance of Egyptian days. The philosopher Proclus (A. D.
412-485) was said to be even more scrupulous in this regard than the
Egyptians themselves. And Plotinus (A. D. 204-270), another eminent
Grecian philosopher, believed with the astrologers of a later day, that
the positions of the planets in the heavens exerted an influence over
human affairs.[408]
In an ancient calendar of the year 334, in the reign of Constantine the
Great, twenty-six Egyptian days were designated.[409] At an early period,
however, the church authorities forbade the superstitious observance of
these days.
Some of the most eminent early writers of the Christian Church, St.
Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Chrysostom, were earnest in their
denunciation of the prevalent custom of regulating the affairs of life by
reference to the supposed omens of the calendar. The fourth council of
Carthage, in 398, censured such practices; and the synod of Rouen, in the
reign of Clovis, anathematized those who placed faith in such relics of
paganism.[410]
We learn on the authority of Marco Polo that the Brahmins of the
province of Laristan, in southern Persia, in the thirteenth century,
were extremely punctilious in their choice of suitable days for the
performance of any business matters. This famous traveler wrote that a
Brahmin who contemplated making a purchase, for example, would measure
the length of his own shadow in the early morning sunlight, and if the
shadow were of the proper length, as officially prescribed for that day,
he would proceed to make the purchase; otherwise he would wait until the
shadow conformed in length to a predetermined standard for that day of
the week.
The Latin historian, Rolandino (1200-76), in the third book of his
“Chronicle,” describes an undertaking which resulted disastrously
because, as was alleged, it was rashly begun on an “Egyptian day.” There
is frequent mention of these days in many ancient manuscripts in the
Ambrosian Library at Milan.[411]
In a so-called “Book of Precedents,” printed in 1616, fifty-three days
are specified as being “such as the Egyptians noted to be dangerous to
begin or take anything in hand, or to take a journey or any such thing.”
An ancient manuscript mentions twenty-eight days in the year “which
were revealed by the Angel Gabriel to good Joseph, which ever have been
remarked to be very fortunayte dayes either to let blood, cure wounds,
use marchandizes, sow seed, build houses, or take journees.”
Astrologers formerly specified particular days when it was dangerous for
physicians to bleed patients; and especially to be avoided were the first
Monday in April, on which day Cain was born and his brother Abel slain;
the first Monday in August, the alleged anniversary of the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah; and the last Monday in December, which was the
reputed birthday of Judas Iscariot.
In Mason’s “Anatomie of Sorcerie” (1612), the prevailing notions on this
subject were characterized as vain speculations of the astrologers,
having neither foundation in God’s word nor yet natural reason to support
them, but being grounded only upon the superstitious imagination of
men. A work of 1620, entitled “Melton’s Astrologaster,” says that the
Christian faith is violated when, like a pagan and apostate, any man
“doth observe those days which are called _Egyptiaci_, or the calends of
January, or any month, day, time, or year, either to travel, marry or
do anything in.” And the learned Sir Thomas Browne, in his “Pseudodoxia
Epidemica,” published in 1658, declaimed in quaint but forcible language
against the frivolity of such doctrines.