Friday The 13th History

Friday the thirteenth occurs at least once for the year. At most, people who have a phobia for this day will have to deal with that phobia, three times for the year.

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The name for the phobia is paraskevidekatriaphobia and it is derived from the Greek words tri(three), deka(ten), paraskevi(Friday) and of course phobia(fear).

Some people, who don’t like Friday the thirteenth refuse to travel, go out on first dates, undergo surgery, or even do business on the day, believing that something will go badly for them because the day is just like that. Other persons think the day is unlucky but use that as their opportunity to try whatever they think they are most at risk of experiencing failure with. They think that if they fail, they can attribute the failure to the day. Now that’s an interesting way of looking at it!

In some countries, Greece for example, Tuesday is considered an unlucky day.

Through oral traditions, phobias connected with Friday the thirteenth, have been traced back as far as Norse mythology, when the prankster Loki, disrupted a party of twelve guests.

Friday is also named for Frigga, a Norse deity, who was banished to a mountaintop when the Norse and German tribes accepted Jesus Christ.

Allegedly, Frigga held a meeting on every Friday after that to plan terrible events for the coming week.

Friday was known as witches’ Sabbath for many centuries in Scandinavia.

Some people have considered Friday an unlucky day since the 1300s. There have been a few stock market crashes and other unhappy events on Fridays.

In numerology, thirteen goes over the completeness of twelve. This is contrary to the reality in some cultures, where when you buy a dozen of something, the seller sweetens the deal by adding a thirteenth item to your purchase free of charge!

In Thomas Lawson’s novel about Friday the thirteenth, an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of people’s fears and engineers chaos on Wall Street.

According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute located in America, almost 21 million people are affected by this phobia.

The Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics states that fewer accidents happen on this day because people are more careful and take more precautions.

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