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Friday the 13th - Origins and Popular Superstitions of the"Unlucky Day"

School-Scout.de

Titel: Arbeitsblatt aus der Reihe “Englisch - aktuell”

Friday the 13th - Origins and Popular Superstitions of the "Unlucky Day"

Bestellnummer: 57516

Kurzvorstellung: Dieses fertig ausgearbeitete Arbeitsblatt für den direkten Unterrichtseinsatz in Englisch behandelt Freitag den 13. als Unglückstag im englischsprachigen Raum. Immer wenn der 13. Tag eines Monats ausgerechnet auf einen Freitag fällt, würden sich viele Menschen gerne einfach nur im Bett verkriechen und die Bettdecke tief über den Kopf ziehen. Denn dem Aberglauben nach droht an diesem Tag besonderes Unglück.

Woher kommt dieser Glaube an den Unglückstag? Stimmt es wirklich, dass an diesem Tag überdurchschnittlich viele Unfälle passieren? Dieses Arbeitsblatt versucht den Mythos „Freitag der 13.“ Näher darzustellen und seine Herkunft zu erklären. Dabei wird immer ein direkter Bezug zu den Vorstellungen der Schüler/innen hergestellt.

Arbeitsblatt in englischer Sprache!

Inhaltsübersicht: Mind Map Friday the 13th und Wortschatzarbeit

Are you superstitious? Test und statistische Auswertung

Believing in statistics – How superstitious is your class?

Believe it or not: Friday the 13th and popular superstition

Aufgaben und Lösungen sowie weiterführende Ideen

Internet: http://www.School-Scout.de E-Mail: info@School-Scout.de

SCHOOL-SCOUT Friday the 13th – Superstition against your will Seite 3 von 8

Task 2) Do you consider yourself superstitious? Do the test and find out!

1. Do you put a charm in your pocket if you have to take a really difficult test/exam that day?

□ A Just one? Better combine a lucky charm bracelet AND a gemstone with my favorite pair of trousers. How else would I feel calm and confident?

□ B Honestly, show me a person who takes exams without some backup charm and I show you a person with no feelings!

□ C Well, if I don’t have to repeat that publicly I would confess that a lucky charm is in my pocket.

2. You are walking down a dark alley; doors unseen are squeaking and the wind howls… When a black cat crosses your path from left to right you …

□ A …consider running away but you faint within seconds.

□ B …pull out your phone - just to check the time, of course.

□ C …keep on humming that catchy tune you heard on the radio yesterday.

3. How do you behave on a Friday the 13th?

□ A Fortunately, my parents are as cautious as I am and therefore authorize my absence from school. I don’t want to die young!

□ B I may frown a little when I get a look at the calendar, but don’t believe this day to be better or worse than any other.

□ C Same procedure as every Friday: Endure school first, then head home quickly to meet friends and enjoy the weekend!

4. Do you remember if anything bad ever happened to you on a Friday the 13th?

□ A Yes, indeed! I lost my wallet once on a Friday the 13th, and I got a bad mark in physics as well.

□ B I don’t remember anything in particular.

□ C No, and even if something bad had ever happened to me on a Friday the 13th, it was not necessarily connected to the date.

5. Is anyone in your family or a close friend superstitious?

□ A My grandmother still believes in some sayings she was taught when she was a little girl.

□ B Some of my family pretends not to believe in it, but I know that my mother still wants me to finish off my plate because a German saying says that if you eat everything up today, the sun will shine tomorrow.

□ C No, everyone in my family is either a doctor or a nuclear physicist.

6. What is the difference between breaking a dish and breaking a mirror?

□ A Obviously breaking a mirror leads to seven years of bad luck, whereas breaking a dish means good luck! Who doesn’t know that?

□ B I do not know about breaking mirrors, but isn’t breaking dishes a traditional element of the German “Polterabend”?

□ C I guess the mirror will be more expensive so I’ll have to hand over some of my pocket money to pay for it.

SCHOOL-SCOUT Friday the 13th – Superstition against your will Seite 5 von 8

BELIEVE IT OR NOT: FRIDAY THE 13TH AND POPULAR SUPERSTITION

Task 4)

a) Read the text about Friday the 13th and superstition as a preparation for tasks b-d.

b) What is the difference between superstition, belief, superficial knowledge and rules of

thumblike country lore (Bauernregeln)? Use examples to explain.

c) Role play – dialogue: come together in pairs and imagine it is Friday the 13th. One of you

is rather superstitious, the other is not. You have just written a test in geography and the

superstitious one of you believes (s)he might have done bad. Is there a real need for fear?

Explain your positions to each other and analyse the problem.

d) Which omen, symbols for good or bad things and unlucky days do you know and what do

they stand for? Try to categorize them as done in task b).

Many people in the western culture sport an irrational fear of Friday the 13th. In the United States alone between 17 and 21 million people fear that date so much so that their behaviour can be called a phobia. The phobia of Friday the 13th is academically called paraskevidekatriaphobia, a term which is derived from the Greek Paraskeví (Παρασκευή meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς meaning "thirteen") attached to phobía (φοβία 7 meaning "fear"). According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute (Ashville, NorthCarolina), paraskevidekatriaphobia lets people avoid their daily routines like getting out of bed, doing business or taking flights. It has been estimated that up to $900 million Dollar are lost in business. Nevertheless, U.S. airlines like Delta or Continental deny suffering from severe drops in the number of their flight passengers on those Fridays. Insurance companies also agree that there is no rise in the number of accidents which happen on this day compared to that of any other day. Therefore, there is no self-fulfilling prophecy at work on a 14 large scale.

But where does the fear of Friday the 13th originate? The belief in the bad omen of Friday the 13th is derived from old Bible interpretations. Eve is said to have brought the forbidden fruit to Adam on a Friday, and the temple of Salomon was destroyed on a Friday as well. Also, in the 18th century sailors wouldn’t set sail on a Friday as it might kill them all. The number thirteen has also long been considered to bring about bad luck. Judas was the 13th guest (and traitor) of the last supper with Jesus, so that 13 people meeting might bring about the 21 death of the person who first rises from the table. Whereas the number twelve stands for chronological completeness (12 hours on the clock, 12 months of the year and 12 zodiac signs), thirteen is considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. Some hotels do not have a room with the number 13 to keep misfortune away from their guests. 13 is also regarded to be a synonym for the devil.

Only in the 19th century Friday and 13 were combined to represent the unluckiest day of all days. Because of the Christian origin, superstition (‘Aberglaube’) was once a derogatory term 28 for the Christian religion. Later on, it was also used to refer negatively to pagan beliefs. Today, the term superstition is used to refer to an irrational, unexplainable belief in charms, symbols and jinxes. Only a minority of the people living in the western culture believe in mysterious, inscrutable phenomena. It should be taken into consideration that every culture and religion produces its own superstitious beliefs. In Japan, for example, the word for the number four also means death, that is why most Japanese buildings do not have a fourth floor. 35

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Task 4) Text über Aberglaube

a) Lassen sie die Abschnitte des Textes zusammenfassen, um das Verständnis zu

überprüfen. Außerdem bietet es sich an die Begriffe paraskevidekatriaphobia‘, ‚self-fulfilling

prophecy‘ und ‚superstition‘ auf Englisch umschreiben zu lassen, da sie die Schlüsselbegriffe

des Textes darstellen.

b)

c) In dem Rollenspiel sollen die beiden Dialogpartner zeigen, dass sie Aberglaube und

rationales Denken in modernen Kontexten verstehen können und in der Lage sind damit

tolerant umzugehen. Dafür sollen im Dialog die konträren Positionen dargelegt werden und

gegenseitiges Verständnis aufgebaut werden.

d) Weitere Beispiele sind in den Illustrationen auf dem Kopf des Arbeitsblattes angedeutet.

Unglückstage sind in der christlichen Mythologie 42 zu finden, zum Beispiel der 1.Mai (die

Walpurgisnacht), der Aschermittwoch und der Karfreitag. Mit der Suche und Kategorisierung

werden die Schüler/innen darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass Aberglaube ein fester

Bestandteil ihres Alltags ist.

Superstition irrational belief usually founded on

ignorance or fear and characterized by

obsessive reverence for omens,

charms, etc

Belief a principle, proposition, idea, etc,

accepted as true, a conviction, a religious

faith

Superficial knowledge the quality of including only the simplest

and most obvious aspects of sth, and not

those aspects which require more effort to

deal with or understand; lack of depth

Country lore collective knowledge or wisdom on a

particular subject, esp of a traditional

nature

Unterrichtsmaterialien in digitaler und in gedruckter Form

Auszug aus:

Das komplette Material finden Sie hier:

© Copyright school-scout.de / e-learning-academy AG – UrheberrechtshinweisAlle Inhalte dieser Material-Vorschau sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Das Urheberrecht liegt, soweit nicht ausdrücklich anders gekennzeichnet, bei school-scout.de / e-

learning-academy AG. Wer diese Vorschauseiten unerlaubt kopiert oder verbreitet, macht sich gem. §§ 106 ff UrhG strafbar.

Friday the 13th - Origins and Popular Superstitions of the"Unlucky Day"

School-Scout.de