Paraskevidekatriaphobia: Fear of Friday 13th
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 4:43 am
Look, if you dare, at the top of this page. There, you can read the word “Friday.” Now, look down, where today’s date is seen. Yep, it’s the 13th.
You know what that means. Or do you?
For centuries, possibly millennia, various cultures have had negative associations with the number 13, generally, and with the 13th day of a month falling on Friday, specifically.
For most people today, these associations fall more in the realm of folklore, or urban myth, than something to be taken seriously. But for an unfortunate few, they can be traumatic.
“Triskaedekaphobia” is the clinical term for an irrational fear of the number 13, first used in 1911 in the book “Abnormal Psychology” by Boston physician I.H. Coriat.
The word combines the Greek words triskaeideka, or “thirteen,” and phobia, or “fear.”
More recently, Dr. Donald Dossey, a behavioral scientist and founder of the Stress Management Center-Phobia Institute of Southern California, coined the term “paraskevidekatriaphobia” for the irrational fear of Friday the 13th. Dossey says that as many as 21 million people in the United States, or almost 8 percent of the population, have this fear.
A wealth of information concerning various theories on how these fears developed is available by doing a cursory search on the Internet.
Many researchers think the fear may predate history, but the most common explanation given for how 13 began to have negative connotations stems from the biblical story of the Last Supper of Christ. Shortly before his arrest and execution, Jesus Christ shared a last meal with his twelve disciples, making the number of people at the table thirteen. The last to arrive was Judas Iscariot, who would later betray Christ to Roman authorities.
In medieval Europe, this association, combined with the fact that the Christ’s crucifixion was said to have taken place on a Friday (Rome’s execution day), permanently tainted Friday the 13th in the Christian world. Some also believe that Friday was the day that God cast Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the day when the Great Flood began, and the day when the Great Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed.
When Christianity spread into Europe, as in other places, it adopted many of the local customs of its new converts. In pagan Scandinavia, Frigga (or Freya) was the name of the goddess of fertility and love, more or less the equivalent of the Roman goddess Venus, who was worshiped on the sixth day of the week. Christians referred to Frigga as a witch, and Friday as the “witches’ Sabbath.” Thus, another term given to the fear of Friday the 13th is “friggatriskatidekaphobia.”
Also, the Norse god of evil, named Loki, was said to have created havoc when he came uninvited to a banquet of 12 other gods at the great hall Valhalla.
Another theory holds that the fear of the date stems from October 13, 1307, when King Phillip IV of France, known as “The Beautiful,” ordered the mass arrest of thousands of members of the Knights Templars on trumped-up indecency charges. Hundreds of them were tortured and executed over the next seven years.
Manifestations of the fears are numerous and pervasive. To this day, when buildings, especially hotels, have no thirteenth floor (or, more accurately, the floor is simply given the designation “14”). Even a few hospitals refuse to use the number for one of their operating theaters. Some people refuse to go to work, or even leave their homes, on a Friday the 13th.
There has even been at least one scientific study on the subject. Three British scientists studied traffic accident statistics on two different days, Friday the 6th and Friday the 13th, over a period of years. Their results, published in a 1993 edition of the “British Medical Journal,” found that there were statistically more accidents on the latter date.
“The risk of hospital admission as a result of transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent,” reads an abstract of the study. “Staying home is recommended.”
Famous people said to have been afflicted by the fear of 13 or Friday the 13th include Napoleon, J. Paul Getty, Mark Twain and U.S. Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Nicole Korzetz, a psychology professor at Lee College said that unlike other, more experientially based phobias, the fear of 13 or Friday the 13th is a learned behavior.
“It tends to be a social phobia whereby you are learning because you see other people being afraid. The name for that is vicarious conditioning,” she said. “You develop a phobia because you see or hear about somebody else having gone through something bad.”
Arlene Baker, a Houston clinical social worker operates a phobia and anxiety treatment center, said that in her years of practice, she has never treated a person for those specific fears.
“For the most part, it’s very rare,” Baker said.
Unlike major phobias such as agoraphobia (in which victims avoid situations that might bring on panic attacks) the fear of thirteen or Friday the 13th is not really a debilitating condition, she said.
Social phobias, such as the fear of public speaking or going to parties, are also very common she said.
Baker said that the fears associated with 13 fall into another category, called specific, or simple, phobias. These involve very specific things or situations, such fears of snakes, spiders, dogs, or flying.
“It’s hard to know exactly why a person attaches to a specific phobia, of those particular phobias,” she said.
Baker said that phobias can be effectively treated with cognitive behavioral therapy. Unlike traditional psychotherapy, which involves discussing past traumas, cognitive therapy involves people confronting issues they face in the present.
Generally speaking, she said, people are able to overcome phobias, if they work at it.
“You have to work on identifying your fearful thoughts, and disputing them, challenging them, and going into the feared area,” she said.
“If you’re afraid of the number 13, the thing to do is to actually go out, even if you don’t want to. Usually you see that everything is fine,” she said.
And if you’re not quite ready to do that today, don’t worry, you’ve got some time. The next Friday the 13th is in August.
Here is the link to this story.
http://www.baytownsun.com/story.lasso?wcd=14854
You know what that means. Or do you?
For centuries, possibly millennia, various cultures have had negative associations with the number 13, generally, and with the 13th day of a month falling on Friday, specifically.
For most people today, these associations fall more in the realm of folklore, or urban myth, than something to be taken seriously. But for an unfortunate few, they can be traumatic.
“Triskaedekaphobia” is the clinical term for an irrational fear of the number 13, first used in 1911 in the book “Abnormal Psychology” by Boston physician I.H. Coriat.
The word combines the Greek words triskaeideka, or “thirteen,” and phobia, or “fear.”
More recently, Dr. Donald Dossey, a behavioral scientist and founder of the Stress Management Center-Phobia Institute of Southern California, coined the term “paraskevidekatriaphobia” for the irrational fear of Friday the 13th. Dossey says that as many as 21 million people in the United States, or almost 8 percent of the population, have this fear.
A wealth of information concerning various theories on how these fears developed is available by doing a cursory search on the Internet.
Many researchers think the fear may predate history, but the most common explanation given for how 13 began to have negative connotations stems from the biblical story of the Last Supper of Christ. Shortly before his arrest and execution, Jesus Christ shared a last meal with his twelve disciples, making the number of people at the table thirteen. The last to arrive was Judas Iscariot, who would later betray Christ to Roman authorities.
In medieval Europe, this association, combined with the fact that the Christ’s crucifixion was said to have taken place on a Friday (Rome’s execution day), permanently tainted Friday the 13th in the Christian world. Some also believe that Friday was the day that God cast Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the day when the Great Flood began, and the day when the Great Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed.
When Christianity spread into Europe, as in other places, it adopted many of the local customs of its new converts. In pagan Scandinavia, Frigga (or Freya) was the name of the goddess of fertility and love, more or less the equivalent of the Roman goddess Venus, who was worshiped on the sixth day of the week. Christians referred to Frigga as a witch, and Friday as the “witches’ Sabbath.” Thus, another term given to the fear of Friday the 13th is “friggatriskatidekaphobia.”
Also, the Norse god of evil, named Loki, was said to have created havoc when he came uninvited to a banquet of 12 other gods at the great hall Valhalla.
Another theory holds that the fear of the date stems from October 13, 1307, when King Phillip IV of France, known as “The Beautiful,” ordered the mass arrest of thousands of members of the Knights Templars on trumped-up indecency charges. Hundreds of them were tortured and executed over the next seven years.
Manifestations of the fears are numerous and pervasive. To this day, when buildings, especially hotels, have no thirteenth floor (or, more accurately, the floor is simply given the designation “14”). Even a few hospitals refuse to use the number for one of their operating theaters. Some people refuse to go to work, or even leave their homes, on a Friday the 13th.
There has even been at least one scientific study on the subject. Three British scientists studied traffic accident statistics on two different days, Friday the 6th and Friday the 13th, over a period of years. Their results, published in a 1993 edition of the “British Medical Journal,” found that there were statistically more accidents on the latter date.
“The risk of hospital admission as a result of transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent,” reads an abstract of the study. “Staying home is recommended.”
Famous people said to have been afflicted by the fear of 13 or Friday the 13th include Napoleon, J. Paul Getty, Mark Twain and U.S. Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Nicole Korzetz, a psychology professor at Lee College said that unlike other, more experientially based phobias, the fear of 13 or Friday the 13th is a learned behavior.
“It tends to be a social phobia whereby you are learning because you see other people being afraid. The name for that is vicarious conditioning,” she said. “You develop a phobia because you see or hear about somebody else having gone through something bad.”
Arlene Baker, a Houston clinical social worker operates a phobia and anxiety treatment center, said that in her years of practice, she has never treated a person for those specific fears.
“For the most part, it’s very rare,” Baker said.
Unlike major phobias such as agoraphobia (in which victims avoid situations that might bring on panic attacks) the fear of thirteen or Friday the 13th is not really a debilitating condition, she said.
Social phobias, such as the fear of public speaking or going to parties, are also very common she said.
Baker said that the fears associated with 13 fall into another category, called specific, or simple, phobias. These involve very specific things or situations, such fears of snakes, spiders, dogs, or flying.
“It’s hard to know exactly why a person attaches to a specific phobia, of those particular phobias,” she said.
Baker said that phobias can be effectively treated with cognitive behavioral therapy. Unlike traditional psychotherapy, which involves discussing past traumas, cognitive therapy involves people confronting issues they face in the present.
Generally speaking, she said, people are able to overcome phobias, if they work at it.
“You have to work on identifying your fearful thoughts, and disputing them, challenging them, and going into the feared area,” she said.
“If you’re afraid of the number 13, the thing to do is to actually go out, even if you don’t want to. Usually you see that everything is fine,” she said.
And if you’re not quite ready to do that today, don’t worry, you’ve got some time. The next Friday the 13th is in August.
Here is the link to this story.
http://www.baytownsun.com/story.lasso?wcd=14854
