IT'S FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH!
SO WHAT?
By Octoberwych
Paraskevidekatriaphobia - fear of Friday the Thirteenth
Paraskevidekatriaphobics - those afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the Thirteenth
Paraskevi is the Greek word for Friday - dekatria is the Greek word for thirteen
Paraskevidekatriaphobia is a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the Thirteenth. The term was coined by therapist Dr. Donald Dossey, whose specialty is treating people with irrational fears. He claims that when you can pronounce the word you are cured. Dr. Dossy is the author of the book, Holiday Folklore, Phobia and Fun , Mythical Origins, Scientific Treatments and Superstitious Cures (circa 1992). How many people at the turn of the millennium still suffer from this phobia? According to Dr. Donald Dossey, as many as 21 million do in the United States alone. That amounts to something like eight percent of the population.
About Friday - Did you know?
In the USA and the British Isles Friday was known as Hangman's Day or Hanging Day as this was the day that most executions were performed.
In the UK folklore says that if it rains on a Friday the forecast for Sunday is bright.
Friday is Frigga's Day. Frigga (Frigg) was an ancient Celtic (Norse) fertility and love goddess, equivalent to the Roman Venus who had been worshipped on the sixth day of the week. The Celts (Norse) worshipped Frigga (Frigg) on Friday.
September 24, 1869 is labeled as Black Friday in the USA - the day the government flooded the market with gold to bring down prices ruined many speculators.
Christians called Frigga a Witch and Friday the Witches Sabbath.
Norse men considered Friday, named after the Norse deity, Freya, as the luckiest day of the week.
The Romans worshipped Venus, the goddess of love on the sixth day of the week, Friday.
Within the Roman Catholic Faith, Friday is the traditionally a day of abstinence.
In Hungarian folklore it was considered bad luck to be born on a Friday but misfortune could be averted by placing some blood of the misfortunate on some old clothing and burning it.
Both Buddhists and Brahmins consider Friday to be a day of misfortune. According to Christians, Jesus was crucified on a Friday. It is said that Adam was created on a Friday and it was allegedly a Friday when Adam and Eve tasted of the forbidden fruit and a Friday when they died. The murder of Abel, the stoning of Stephen, the massacre of the innocents by Herod, the flight of the children of Israel through the Red Sea (the Deluge) and the Confusion of Tongues at the Tower of Babel are all said to have happened on a Friday,
Even the tale of William Tell and the apple was said to have happened on a Friday.
Friday is traditionally considered to be the sixth day of the week. Six is the number that is biblically associated with man. Three is the number of the Holy Trinity. The trinity (God of Man, Satan) of six associated with man 666 = the number of the Beast.
For followers of Mohammed, Friday after sunset is also the Sabbath.
Scandinavians, Hindus and Scots consider Friday a good to wed.
Fishermen say, Friday's sail, always fail.
In 1492 it is said that Columbus set sail on a Friday and eventually sighted land on a Friday.
An English proverb says, A Friday moon brings foul weather.
A children's poem says 'Friday's child is lucky and giving'.
He who laughs on Friday will weep on Sunday. -- Les Plaideurs, Racine
Whoever be born on a Friday, or it's night
He shall be accursed of men.
About Thirteen - Did you know?
Most Americans carry a symbol of the mystery of the number thirteen in their pocket in the form of an American dollar -- at least since 1935. The design on the back of this bill bridges ancient Egyptian allegorical motifs to our own times, as symbolic uses of the number thirteen have been arranged around each of the two sides of the Great Seal of the United States. Among them, for example, is an incomplete or truncated pyramid of thirteen steps. There are thirteen leaves and berries on an olive branch, and in the left talon of the American bald eagle are thirteen arrows. As all American know (or should know) the design refers to the thirteen original colonies.
Most Hotels in the states do not have a thirteenth floor (at least a floor that designated by the number thirteen). Most hotels, motels and even hospitals do not have a room designated by thirteen. Some cities do not have streets designated as thirteenth avenue, thirteenth street and so on. The belief is that it is not the room or the floor or the street that bears misfortune - but the number itself.
In Italy, however, thirteen is not considered unlucky. Italian infants are given a gold charm of the number to insure good luck and prosperity in the future.
The state lotteries of France, Italy, and elsewhere never sell tickets with the number thirteen.
The thirteenth moon in a lunar calendar is labeled a blue moon.
The number thirteen according to Hindus who assign gender to numbers is feminine.
The number thirteen according to the Chinese and Egyptians who also assign gender to numbers is masculine.
In Belgium the numeral thirteen is worn as a good luck charm.
Romans considered that fatality followed the number whenever and for whatever purpose thirteen people gathered together.
Thirteen was considered a lucky number in ancient Egypt and China.
The ancient Egyptians considered the thirteenth stage of life to be death, i.e., the afterlife, which they thought was a good thing.
The Death card in a Tarot deck is numbered thirteen and represents transformation.
All over the world there are houses numbered 12 ½ rather than thirteen.
Thirteen is known as THE DEVIL'S DOZEN in Scotland.
Thirteen donuts, cookies, etc is known as a Baker's Dozen.
The compound Three-Ten for thirteen is commonly used.
Most teachers stop at Twelve Times Twelve with multiplication tables
Thirteen is believed to be an unlucky number for dinner parties. The old belief is that the first person to rise from the table will meet misfortune, possibly even die within a year. Slight protection against this fate is supposed by some to be afforded if all the company rise together.
It is said that Judas was the first to arise from thirteen who attended the Last Supper and the first to die.
Christians believe there were thirteen guests at the Last Supper which allegedly occurred on a Friday. The quandary develops when one tries to determine who exactly was the thirteenth guest. Unfortunately, many use the artist rendering of the Last Supper to determine that either Christ at one end of the table or Judas at the other end of the table was the thirteenth guest. Let's keep in mind folks that da Vinci was not present at the Last Supper - the painting is his glorious interpretation of the biblical scene.
Is there a thirteenth tribe of Israel? The bible proclaims only twelve. Both Christians and Jews deny that a thirteenth tribe ever existed. A few acknowledge that there may have been a group who falsely identified themselves as the thirteenth tribe. These unfortunate folk were likely labeled as Witches and sorcerers, or worse - heretics - and probably met a very bad end.
Any month with a Friday the thirteenth must begin with a Sunday the first.
In Norse mythology Loki. God of Deceit intrudes upon a banquet of twelve guests becoming the thirteenth. Balder, God of light and beauty, son of Odin, is killed by Loki at the feast.
A Wiccan/Pagan Coven requires thirteen members to cast the Circle. The number thirteen in this respect represents the number of lunar months in a year. thirteen Full Moons. Those cultures with lunar calendars and thirteen months don't associate thirteen with anything sinister.
We are told that the registration of Princess Margaret's birth was delayed so that she would not be entered as number thirteen.
Thirteenpence-halfpenny is called a hangman. So called because thirteen pence-halfpenny was at one time his [the hangman] wages for hanging a man.
The names of some murderers bear a chilling relationship to the number thirteen:
Jack the Ripper- 13 letters
John Wayne Gacy- 13 letters
Charles Manson- 13 letters
Jeffrey Dahmer- 13 letters
Theodore ( Ted ) Bundy- 13 letters
In the fall of 1307, the King of France, Philip de Bel, known as the Beautiful executed a horrific crime against the Knight's Templar. It seems he and Pope Boniface VIII were at odds over how the Beautiful financed his kingdom. The Beautiful stole property from his people, arrested Jews, devalued his currency and tried to tax the Church. Then, the King applied for membership to the Knights Templar and was rejected. He tripled the price of everything in France overnight. When rebellion broke out the King realized his life was in peril. He had to beg the Knights Templar for protection. Humiliated, on September 14 he mass-mailed a set of sealed orders to every bailiff, seneschal, deputy and officer in his kingdom. The functionaries were forbidden under penalty of death to open the papers before Thursday night, October 12. The following Friday (the thirteenth) morning, alert to their secret instructions, armies of officials slipped out of their barracks. By sundown nearly all the Knights Templar throughout France were in jails. One estimate puts the arrests at two thousand, another as high as five thousand. What followed was so foul, according to folklore, only twenty escaped, that Templar sympathizers cursed the day itself, condemning the day as evil.
So is Friday the thirteenth really evil? Unlucky? Or are both the day and the numeral merely the victim of coincidence and contrivance, manipulated by politicians and clergy to serve their own purposes? Thirteen, it seems is not really an unlucky number, but a fateful one -- a number destined to always be full of vague and unimaginable possibilities...
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Sources:
1) http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa101100a.htm?once=true&
2) http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/4885/fri13.html
3) Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route Into Spain by Jack Hitt (copyright 1994, published by Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-75818-7)
4) Narrow Houses Copyright:1994 Douglas E. Winter.
5) Magic and Superstition copyright 1968 Douglas Hill by the Hamlyn Publishing Group
6) Every Man's Book of Superstitions by Christine Chaundler 1970 Philosophical Library
7) Popular Superstitions Copyright: Charles Platt Book Tower, Detroit, 1973
8) http://skepdic.com/paraskevidekatriaphobia.html
9) http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/time/days.html
10) A Treasury of Superstitions by Claudia DeLys Gramercy Books NY 1996
11) Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable Centenary Edition, Revised Harper & Row 1981
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