Friday the 13th

Yesterday, Friday 13, the day that haunts us all… I got curious and google-it:

“A Friday occurring on the 13th day of any month is considered to be a day of bad luck in English, German, Polish and Portuguese-speaking cultures around the globe. Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece or Spain, for example, Tuesday the 13th takes the same role. In Russia, the unlucky day is Monday. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia (a word that is derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Παρασκευή, δεκατρείς, and φοβία, meaning Friday, thirteen, and phobia respectively; alternate spellings include paraskevodekatriaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia) or friggatriskaidekaphobia, and is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number thirteen.”

Interesting… I can say now that I have paraskavedekatriaphobia. I hate Friday 13, something bad always happens. But I guess destiny was fond of me, nothing, this year, happened – thank God.

But wait there’s more:

“Before the 20th century, although there is evidence that the number 13 was considered unlucky, and Friday was considered unlucky, there was no link between them.
Many popular stories exist about the origin of the concept:
- The Last Supper, with stories that Judas was the thirteenth guest, and that the Crucifixion of Jesus occurred Friday.
- That the biblical Eve offered the fruit to Adam on a Friday, and that the slaying of Abel happened on a Friday (though the Bible does not identify the days of the week when these events occurred). [1]
- Many modern stories (including The Da Vinci Code) claim that when King Philip IV had many Knights Templar simultaneously arrested on Friday, October 13, 1307, that started the legend of the unlucky Friday the 13th.
Neither these nor any other historical date have been verifiably identified as the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition. The first documented mention of a "Friday the 13th" is generally listed as occurring in the early 1900s.
In the case of Greece, Tuesday, April 13, 1204 was the date that Constantinople was sacked by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade. The first-ever fall of what was then the richest Christian city, and the looting that followed, allegedly gave Tuesday 13 its bad meaning. Coincidentally, Constantinople fell for the second time in its history on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, to the Ottoman Turks, a date that puts an end to the Byzantine empire, and to Greek sovereignty for several centuries, and therefore reinforcing Tuesday as an unlucky day in the Greek world.”

For more information of this check out wikipedia


hug,
Monika I.