Friday is the Sabbath of the Moslems, corresponding to the Sunday of the
Christians and the Saturday of the Jews. In Egypt Friday is therefore
blessed above all other days, while Saturday is the most unfortunate.
However, although Friday was the day selected by Mahomet for the holding
of the Moslem Assembly, it was not wholly devoted to religious worship,
and at the conclusion of public prayers business was transacted as on
any other week-day.[428] Among Mohammedans Friday is considered the
most lucky of days; and it is also the most popular for commencing any
enterprise of importance, whether building a house, planting a garden,
embarking on a voyage, contracting a marriage, or making a garment.[429]
One reason for Mahomet’s choice of Friday as the day for public prayers
was probably because this day was consecrated by the people of many
nations to Alilat, the celestial Venus or Urania, whom the ancient Arabs
worshiped.[430] Mahomet said that whoever bathed on Friday and walked to
the public religious service, taking a seat near the _Imam_ or _Khalifah_
(the leader of a Moslem tribe), and listened attentively to the sermon,
avoiding meanwhile frivolous conversation, would obtain the reward of a
whole year’s prayers at night for every step which he took between his
home and the place of this assembly.[431]
The Moslems among the peasants inhabiting the frontier region between
Afghanistan and Hindostan have a special reverence for Friday; for they
believe that on that day God rested, after having created the world. On
Friday eve, according to their belief, the spirits of the departed are
wont to revisit their former abodes, and hence the custom prevails of
sending delicacies to the mosque at such times.[432]
Friday was the most popular day for weddings among the Jews in mediæval
times, and its selection appears to have been due to expediency, because
of its nearness to the Jewish Sabbath, and the convenience of associating
the marriage ceremony with the services in the synagogue on the latter
day. The bridal pair fasted on the morning of the wedding, and ashes were
sprinkled over their heads during the ceremony.[433]
According to the teachings of the Talmud, a second soul was believed to
enter men’s bodies every Friday evening and to remain throughout the
following day, its presence being indicated by an increased appetite for
food.[434]
On Friday, says an old tradition, is held the Witches’ Sabbath or
Assembly, and one should be careful not to speak of these creatures on
that day, for their hearing is then especially acute, and disrespectful
remarks will render one liable to incur their spite.
In the popular belief of the Swabians, Friday is the day when the
witches celebrate their joint festival with the Devil on the Heuberg,
near Rotenburg, and afterward scour the country, intent on working all
manner of mischief upon the people and their cattle.[435]
According to a Scotch superstition, however, witches were supposed to
hold their weekly meetings on Saturdays, in unfrequented places. The
formal proceedings on these occasions included an address by the Devil,
and the holding of a court, wherein each witch was expected to give a
detailed statement of her doings; and those who had been idle were given
a beating with their own broomsticks, the diligent being rewarded by
gifts of enchanted bones. A dance followed, the Devil playing on the
bag-pipes, and leading the music.[436]
The Irish are careful not to mention fairies by name either on Wednesdays
or Fridays, for these invisible creatures are unusually alert on these
two days.
On Fridays especially, their power for evil is very strong. On that
day, therefore, a careful watch is kept over the children and cattle; a
lighted wisp of straw is waved about the baby’s head, and a quenched coal
is placed under the cradle and churn. And if the horses are more than
usually restive in their stalls, it is a sure sign that the fairies are
riding them; therefore the people spit three times at the animals, and
the fairies thereupon immediately take their departure.[437]
In Ireland Friday is _facile princeps_ among unlucky days, and especial
care should be taken not to open the door of one’s dwelling to any
stranger on that day. Neither butter nor milk should be given away, nor
should a cat be taken from one house to another on a Friday. To undo a
sorcerer’s spell, one should eat barley cakes over which an incantation
has been said; but the cakes must be eaten on a Monday or Thursday, and
never on Friday.[438]
In Welsh tradition the water-sprites are thought to keep an especially
watchful eye over the sea on Fridays, making it rough and tempestuous.
On a Friday morning in the year 1600, says an old legend, a ship set sail
from a Northern port, having on board a young man and a maiden of rare
beauty, whose strange actions and demeanor seemed to betoken that they
were supernatural beings. The vessel never reached port, but one stormy
night a phantom ship was seen, enveloped in an uncanny light; and on its
deck stood the youth and his sweetheart, a weird vision, as the spectral
craft moved along over the stormy sea against the wind.[439]
In Hesse Frau Hölle, the modern Freyja, is the special guardian and
protectress of newly married people, and so tenacious has been this old
belief in the minds of the Hessian peasants that the day of Venus is
still in high favor among them as the most propitious for weddings.[440]
In some places it is unlucky to receive any news, whether good or bad, on
a Friday; and, according to a Shropshire saying, “if you hear anything
new on a Friday, it gives you another wrinkle on your face, and adds
another year to your age.”[441] Indeed, the term “Friday-faced” was used
to denote a gloomy or dejected visage, as in the following quotation:—
Marry, out upon him! what a friday-fac’d slave it is! I think
in my conscience his face never keeps holiday.[442]
In Servia children born on Friday are thought to be invulnerable to the
assaults of the whole army of hags and sorcerers. In Germany Friday is
reckoned the most fateful of all the week-days, whether for good or evil.
The beliefs vary in different portions of the empire, but there is a
universal prejudice against setting out on a journey, moving into a new
house, or changing servants on this day. In eastern Prussia, whoever
bakes on a Friday will get but little bread; but Sunday baptisms are
thought to offset the unlucky auspices of children born on Friday. The
North German farmers consider Friday the best day on which to begin
gathering the harvest.[443]
In olden times Friday was the most favorable day for courtship and
weddings in Germany, and, unless a bride first entered her new home on
that day, domestic strife was likely to ensue.
If she wished to tame a bad-tempered husband, her first care was to
prepare for him a soup made with the rain-water of a Friday’s shower.
The magic charm of words wherewith cattle were freed from the mange was
spoken on a Friday morning; and a hare which had been shot on the first
Friday in March was of great therapeutic value, especially its eyes,
which were dried and carried about as a sovereign remedy for defective
vision.
Only on a Friday did the church-bells strike the hour for the release
of bewitched spirits, and the delivery of enchanted souls from their
spells.[444]
Doctor M. Höfler, in his “Volksmedizin und Aberglauben in Oberbayern”
(p. 208), says that Bavarian peasants still cherish many superstitions
about the sixth day of the week, the day sacred to Freyja, the old German
Goddess of Love. Moreover, wonderful amuletic virtues are attributed to
hens’ eggs laid during Good Friday night, and whoever eats these eggs is
thought to be thereby insured against bodily harm. How long this immunity
holds good does not appear; but probably until another Good Friday night
egg is eaten. In farmers’ households these precious eggs are therefore
eagerly sought by the house-mistress, who is wont to give them to her
husband and the farm-hands; or else she uses them as an ingredient of the
dough figures which ornament the Easter bread.