Arizona weekly enterprise., 1889-06-22
FROM THE MUSTY PAST.
MANY su uPERsTITIoNs ROOTED IN
 OLD PAGAN BELIEFS.

Clinging to the Ignorance of the Past as
 We'll as to Its wisdOm-The UnIucky
 Day-The Barking Dog-Cutting Nails
 and Hs.ir by ;hs Moon.
 I want now to lock with little more particularity into the origin of some of our superstitions. I have already told you. in a general s=ay, what l now wish to emphasize, that the largest part of them are modern survivals of old nature myths and pagan religions, That the old world is still vital in us we are giv- ing evidence every day of our lives. Our common speech is full of traces of old beliefs just as the rocks under our feet are full of fossils and tracks of creatures long since extinct. Our carnivals, Mardi Gras and Lents; our Christmas trees, yule legs. gift making, mistletoe boughs and eTergreens; our New Year and May day festivals; our Easter rejoicings. Easter eggs and carols; all of there are thous4nd of years old and have their sources in all nations and all religions.
 The peasants of England still kindle their Bel fires which across the darkness of the centuries flame out an answering signal to the old Phoenicians; and they werel kindled at the still more antique fires lof the older Persians; and even these last are only modern representa- tivesl of the old first fires of the first wor- shippers, who. in far off .dimness of the years. first made on earth fire in honor of their heavenly god. the sun. The past. then, where is it? It is all about us and in us; its wisdom not only, but it's folly We clothe ourselves in its robes of wisdom, and we still gather about us the tattered and grotesque rags of its ignorance.
 WHY FRIDAY IS AN UNLUCKY DAY.
 We will now particularize just little. Why should Friday be now regarded as an lunlucky day2 Nobody ever proved it so. As many facts against the notion cam be found as those that favor it. Only if people get a fancy in their heads, they always forget the times when their fancy misses fire. and only remember when it hits. Is there anything in the nature of one day in the week to make it differ from others? Nothing. All days equal ly are caused by the turning of the earth on it's axis. and thus bringing its differ ent sides successively toward the sun. Suppose we should begin a new count, and call Wednesday Monday. and so on, would Friday. when we got to it. still be unlucky? No. friends, the reason is here. In one of the old forms of organism this relic of which has still survived Friday was dedicated to Freyja, the Pa gan Venus. Christianity naturally cursed the day and it's worship, which was cor Fupt and coFfupting Sc poor Friga's day was given up to fish diet and Ill ,sfortune. wonder they kept the fish, for it was sacred to Freyja, and this is the reason why Friday is fish day still
 Saturday used to be the unlucky day -Saturn's day. and hence the name. H And as Saturn was always gloomy and nlai 5ilaiII gOd 1t CstIisS tiErssr5t1r lucky to begin anything on his day
 And did you ever think of it? This is the old Jewish Sabbath or day of rest Anc beyond question here is the origin of tho Sabbath. First it was unluclzy to do any thing on that day, because they were afraid of the god who ruled it; then, al the conception of the god changed. they refrained from work, because, for some reason, they supposed he wanted then to. Our Sunday is still Saturday. Sa
 turns day, to thousands, and they stil
 keep it. because they are afraid of thu God who is supposed to have made it hi ! own.