I wear red on Fridays.
Today is Friday the 13th, I and several of my women friends will be wearing red as we meet meet for dinner (even though going out to dinner on Friday the 13th is supposed to be bad luck).
But we do not have Paraskevidekatriaphobia (an irrational fear of Friday the 13th). What we have is Georgedubyabushyphobia (a rational fear that Dumbya will get re-elected).
We’ll go out to dinner and wear red and talk politics and I’ll do a little ritual involving giving each of us a red dragon.
And then I’ll share the following information about Friday the 13th, snipped and re-arranged from here.
Some say Friday’s bad reputation goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It was on a Friday, supposedly, that Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit. Adam bit, as we all learned in Sunday School, and they were both ejected from Paradise. Tradition also holds that the Great Flood began on a Friday; God tongue-tied the builders of the Tower of Babel on a Friday; the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday; and, of course, Friday was the day of the week on which Christ was crucified. It is therefore a day of penance for Christians.
Other sources suggest the number 13 was purposely vilified by the founders of patriarchal religions in the early days of western civilization because it represented femininity. Thirteen had been revered in prehistoric goddess-worshiping cultures, allegedly, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). The “Earth Mother of Laussel,” for example, a 27,000-year-old carving found near the Lascaux caves in France often cited as an icon of matriarchal spirituality, depicts a female figure holding a cresent-shaped horn bearing 13 notches. According to this explanation, as the solar calendar triumphed over the lunar with the rise of male-dominated civilization, so did the number 12 over the number 13, thereafter considered anathema.
In pre-Christian cultures it was the sabbath, a day of worship, so those who indulged in secular or self-interested activities on that day could not expect to receive blessings from the gods
Elaine, you remind me here of Jenny Joseph’s warning somehow 😉
cf
http://home.egge.net/~savory/joseph.htm
Stu
Yes, of course, Stu. The Red Hat Society was formed basesd on that “Warning” poem. It was a great idea until it became institutionalized and lost its edge. That’s why I’m suggesting Red Dragon Ladies. At least for now. Until that loses its edge. But I still love that poem.
Hey, I found this page while googling “red hat” + “pagan”. I love the idea of the Red Dragon Ladies; I was thinking of starting a Red Pointy Hat Society. But no dress code, except maybe “mix it up!”
Speaking of pointy hats, there’s a Daughter of Eris chapter and a Lesbian Amazon Red Hat chapter, both in Illinois. Those came up on my google search, too.