CHAMBERS'S 



ENCYCLOPEDIA 



A DICTIONARY OF UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE 



ridiiy (Lat. Dies Veneris, Fr. 

 Vendredi, Ger. Freitag, Swed. 

 Fredag), the sixth day of the 

 week, takes its name from the 

 goddess Frigga, the wife of 

 Odin, to M-noin it was con- 

 secrated. The word is, however, 

 often connected with Freyja, 

 the goddess of love, to which 

 notion the Latin name is due. As the day of the 

 week on which the Crucifixion of our Lord took 

 l>l;i>'>, it lias had a special sanctity among most 

 Christian peoples, and Roman Catholics still hold 

 it a* a weekly fast. The Friday in Holy Week is 

 the day on which the PaiMsion is celehrated, and 

 as Mich is the most solemn of the fasts and 

 festivals of the Christian church. Almost every- 

 where within the range of Christendom, Friday is 

 a day of proverbial ill-luck, on which it is not wise 

 ii> put to sea, to marry, or commence any import- 

 ant undertaking. In some places other days are 

 unlucky for particular enterprises, but Friday holds 

 its character everywhere and for undertakings of 

 all kinds. Among no class of men is this notion 

 more persistent than among mariners, who, whether 

 Spaniards, Italians, Bretons, Finns, or English- 

 men, alike manifest the same disinclination to put 

 to sea that day ; and recount many a story of 

 disaster that has followed some too greatly daring 

 crew, the memory unconsciously retaining the 

 few confirming cases, while the many exceptions 

 are easily forgotten. A persistent but not localised 

 tradition in T>oth England and America tells of a 

 ship, the keel of which was laid on Friday, that was 

 launched on Friday, with the name of Friday, and 

 sent to sea on Friday, under a Captain Friday, but 

 which deservedly was never heard of again. Ship- 

 ping statistics still show a smaller number of sail- 

 ings upon that than upon any other day it may 

 l>e well for sailors to be reminded that Columbus 

 IM, tli sailed and discovered land on Friday, and that 

 the Pilgrim Fathers touched land on the same 

 day. 



209 



Although the Russian name for Friday, Pyatnitsa 

 (pyat, ' five ' ), has not a similar mythological signi- 

 ficance with Friday or Vendredi, the day was con- 

 secrated by the ancient Slavonians to some goddess 

 similar to Venus or Freyja. Afanasief explains 

 the Carinthian name Sibne dau as indicating that 

 it was once holy to Siva, the Lithuanian Seewa, 

 the Slavonic deity corresponding to Ceres. In 

 Christian time the deity presiding over Friday 

 became merged in St Prascovia, and is now addressed 

 under the compound name of ' Mother Pyatnitsa- 

 Prascovia.' She wanders al>out the house on her 

 holy day, and is displeased to see sewing, spinning, 

 weaving, and the like going on, revenging herself 

 by plagues of sore eyes, whitlows, and agnails. 

 Especially must the house be clean of dust on the 

 Thursday evening, so that she may not be offended 

 on her visit the next day. 



Frideswide, ST, the patroness of Oxford, was 

 born there early in the 8th century, the daughter 

 of Dida, an ealdorman. She preferred the re- 

 ligious life to marriage with Algar, a great 

 Mercian noble, who, coming in search of her, was 

 struck blind. She died on 14th November at 

 Oxford (q.v. ), and was formally canonised in 1481. 

 Catherine, Peter Martyr's wife, was buried beside 

 her pillaged shrine in *1552, exhumed by Cardinal 

 Pole, but reinterred there in 1561, when the remains 

 of the virgin saint and of the ex -nun were in- 

 dissoluhly mingled together. See F. (Joldie, S.J., 

 The Story of St Frideswide ( 1881 ). 



Friedensvllle, a small i>ost-village of Lehigh 

 county, Pennsylvania, 6 miles SE. of Allentown, 

 with a rich x.inc mine and a famous pump, that 

 raises nearly 30,000,000 gallons of water daily. 



Friedland. a town of East Prussia, on the 

 Alle, 26 miles SE. of KonigsU'ig, with 318-2 in- 

 habitants. It is famous as the scene of Napoleon's 

 victory, on 14th June 1807, over the Russian and 

 Prussian forces under Bennigsen, which brought 

 about the Treaty of Tilsit. FRIEDLAND is also the 

 name of a town in the north-east of Mecklenburg, 



