February 13, 2009--Paraskavedekatriaphobia
The fear of Friday the 13th (thank you Wikipedia) is called Paraskavedekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή) (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς) (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (φοβία) (meaning fear). This is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple phobia (fear) of the number thirteen, and is also known as friggatriskaidekaphobia.
Now that you’ve got that memorized, we can proceed.
One theory states that Friday the 13th is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.
In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. It has also been suggested that Friday was the day that Jesus was crucified.
Now of course I do not believe any of this. If, for example, 12 is such a good number, why isn’t 11 the problem? Or nine?
How about Monday the 9th? What’s so good about Mondays? You like having to go back to work?
In March we will have a Monday the 9th. Let’s see how good you do that day. One thing I can tell you, I’ll be getting what remains of my money out of the stock market by then before Black Monday.
And just to be safe today, I’m going back to bed.
Now that you’ve got that memorized, we can proceed.
One theory states that Friday the 13th is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.
In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. It has also been suggested that Friday was the day that Jesus was crucified.
Now of course I do not believe any of this. If, for example, 12 is such a good number, why isn’t 11 the problem? Or nine?
How about Monday the 9th? What’s so good about Mondays? You like having to go back to work?
In March we will have a Monday the 9th. Let’s see how good you do that day. One thing I can tell you, I’ll be getting what remains of my money out of the stock market by then before Black Monday.
And just to be safe today, I’m going back to bed.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:06 AM
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