Let us now consider the subject of Friday as an alleged _dies mala_.
The seven week-days were originally named after Saturn, Jupiter, Mars,
the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and the Moon, in the order given, and these
names are found in the early Christian calendars. The Teutonic nations,
however, adopted corresponding names in the Northern mythology,—the Sun
and Moon, Tyr, the Norse God of War, Wodan, Thor, Freyja, and Saturn; and
our early Saxon ancestors worshiped images representing all these deities
until Christianity supplanted paganism in Britain. It has been suggested
that our Friday may have been named after Frigga, the wife of Odin and
the principal goddess of the ancient Scandinavians. But it is much more
probable that the day derives its name from Freyja, the Goddess of Love,
a deity corresponding to the Roman Venus and the Grecian Aphrodite.
Freyja, the most easily propitiated of the goddesses, was wont to listen
favorably to all who invoked her aid, and was especially tender-hearted
to disconsolate lovers. She dwelt in a magnificent palace, and journeyed
about in a car drawn by two cats.[419]
It has been hinted that Freyja’s character was not irreproachable, and
that thence arose Friday’s ill-repute, but such an hypothesis is wholly
untenable.
From the prose “Edda” we learn that this goddess was the wife of one
Odur, and had a daughter named Hnossa, who was wonderfully beautiful. Sad
to relate, Freyja was abandoned by her husband, who went away to visit
foreign lands, and she has since spent much time in weeping, her tears
being turned into drops of pure gold.[420]
The fish was an emblem of Freyja, and as such was offered by the
Scandinavians to their goddess on the sixth day of the week.[421] The
fish was also held sacred by the Babylonians and Assyrians, and by the
ancient Romans as a symbol of Venus.
The generally accepted theory is that the crucifixion of our Lord on
Good Friday was the origin of the widespread superstitions regarding the
sixth day of the week. It is highly probable, however, that these beliefs
originated at a much earlier epoch; for similar ideas are current among
the inhabitants of heathen countries, as in Hindostan, for example.
According to an ancient monkish legend, Adam and Eve partook of the
forbidden fruit on a Friday; and in the Middle Ages many inauspicious
occurrences of history or tradition were thought to have happened on that
day.
In a French manuscript of the year 1285, preserved in the Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris, entitled “Recommandation du Vendredi,” the following
events are alleged to have occurred on a Friday: Adam’s creation, his
sin and expulsion from Eden, the murder of Abel, Christ’s crucifixion,
the stoning of Stephen, the massacre of the Innocents by Herod, the
crucifixion of Peter, the beheading of Paul and that of John the Baptist,
and the flight of the children of Israel through the Red Sea; also
the Deluge, the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel, and the
infliction of the Plagues upon the land of Egypt.[422]
The following extract from a translation of a Saxon manuscript of about
the year 1120 may serve to illustrate the credulity of that epoch in
England, and the odium attaching to Friday:—
Whoever is born on Sunday or its night, shall live without
anxiety and be handsome. If he is born on Monday or its night,
he shall be killed of men, be he laic or be he cleric. If on
Tuesday or its night, he shall be corrupt in his life, and
sinful and perverse. If he be born on Wednesday or its night,
he shall be very peaceable and easy and shall grow up well and
be a lover of good.… If he be born on Friday or its night, he
shall be accursed of men, silly and crafty and loathsome to all
men and shall ever be thinking evil in his heart, and shall
be a thief and a great coward, and shall not live longer than
to mid-age. If he is born on Saturday or its night, his deeds
shall be renowned, he shall be an alderman, whether he be man
or woman; many things shall happen unto him, and he shall live
long.[423]
Although the superstitions of the dark ages may seem to us so
childish, it may yet be affirmed with reason that, in proportion to
the enlightenment of the times, the beliefs then current regarding
day-fatality were no more absurd than those of our own era. In the
“Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,” by Thomas Percy, D. D., is to be
found the following “excellent way to get a fayrie:”—
First, get a broad square christall or Venice glasse, in length
and breadth three inches. Then lay that glasse or christall in
the blood of a white hen, three Wednesdayes or three Fridayes.
Then take it out and wash it with holy aq; and fumigate it.
Then take three hazle sticks or wands of an yeare groth; pill
them fayre and white; and make them so longe as you write the
spiritt’s name, or fayrie’s name, which you call three times on
every stick being made flatt on one side. Then bury them under
some hill, whereat you suppose fayries haunt, the Wednesday
before you call her; and the Fridaye followinge take them uppe
and at eight, or three or ten of the clocke which be good
planetts and houres for that turne; but when you call be in
cleane life and turn thy face towards the east, and when you
have her bind her in that stone and glasse.[424]
Whiston, the translator of Josephus, publicly proclaimed in London that
the comet of 1712 would be visible on October 14 of that year, and that
on the Friday morning ensuing the world would be destroyed by fire.
In the resulting panic, many people embarked in boats on the Thames,
believing the water to be the safer element, on that particular Friday at
least.
Mr. Charles Godfrey Leland, in his “Etruscan Roman Remains,” says that
in certain mediæval manuscripts the Goddess Venus was represented as
the Queen of Hearts and a dealer of lucky cards. Therefore Friday, the
_Dies Veneris_, was sometimes considered a lucky day, especially for
matrimony. This opinion finds favor in Glasgow, where a large proportion
of marriages take place on this day; whereas, in the midland counties of
England, less than two per cent. of the weddings occur on the sixth day
of the week.[425]
References to the popular sentiment regarding Friday are frequent in the
works of English writers. Sir Thomas Overbury, in his description of “a
faire and happy Milk-mayd,” says: “Her dreams are so chaste that shee
dare tell them; only a Fridaie’s dream is all her superstition: that she
conceales for feare of anger.” Again, in the play of “Sir John Oldcastle”
is this passage: “Friday, quotha, a dismal day, Candlemas Day this year
was Friday.”[426] And in Scott’s “Marmion” is the following:—
The Highlander, whose red claymore
The battle turned on Maldas’ shore,
Will on a Friday morn look pale
If asked to tell a fairy tale.
He fears the vengeful Elfin King,
Who leaves that day his grassy ring;
Invisible to human ken,
He walks among the sons of men.
As a refreshing instance of independence of thought in a credulous age,
we may quote from a letter written by Sir Winston Churchill, father of
the Duke of Marlborough, and printed in a tract of 1687. The letter,
though ungrammatical, is given verbatim:—
I have made great experience of the truth of it, and have set
down Friday as my own lucky day, the day on which I was born,
christened, married, and which, I believe, will be the day of
my death. The day on which I have had sundry deliverances from
perils by sea and land, perils by false brethren, perils of
law-suits, etc. I was knighted (by chance unexpected of myself)
on the same day and have several good accidents happened to
me on that day; and am so superstitious in the belief of its
good omen, that I choose to begin any considerable action that
concerns me, on the same day.[427]