Triskaidekaphobia: Fear of the number 13

[HURAKAN]

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskaidekaphobia


Elevator.


Ryan Air Flight.

Personally I don't believe in any of these superstitious stuff, but you could take Friday the 13th to remember your fears!!!

[Chacor]

[prettywitty]

In Mexico, at least in the Yucatan, it's Tuesday the 13th that's considered unlucky. Interestingly, that was the day the island of Cozumel got warning of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. It was a very lucky day for me; I got the last seat on the last flight out!

[HURAKAN]

In Mexico, at least in the Yucatan, it's Tuesday the 13th that's considered unlucky. Interestingly, that was the day the island of Cozumel got warning of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. It was a very lucky day for me; I got the last seat on the last flight out!

Wikipedia says that in Spanish and Greek traditions is Tuesday the 13th the unlucky day.

There is a saying in Spanish for Tuesday the 13th:

Ni te cases, ni te embarques, ni de tu familia te apartes.

Don't marry, don't go in a trip, and don't separate from your family.

[HURAKAN]

http://www.digitalhome.ca/content/view/1904/1/

Beware of Friday the 13th!

Today is Friday July 13th and if you're wary of Friday the 13th then you are not alone. 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.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia meaning Friday, thirteen, and phobia respectively; alternative spellings include paraskevodekatriaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia) or friggatriskaidekaphobia, and is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number thirteen.


No historical date has been verifiably identified as the origin of the superstition. 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. The first documented mention of a "Friday the 13th" is generally listed as occurring in the early 1900's.

Many popular stories exist about the origin of the concept including The Last Supper, with Judas numbered among the thirteen guests (Jesus plus his 12 apostles), however, Judas was not actually present for the latter part of the meal. Norse legends also tell similar tales of Loki "the evil one" who became the 13th guest at a Valhalla dinner party were only twelve gods were invited.

The problem with these theories any other theory positing pre-modern origins for Friday the 13th superstitions is the fact that no one has been able to document the existence of such beliefs prior to the 19th century. No evidence has been found to prove that people who lived before the late 1800s perceived Friday the 13th as a day of special misfortune. As a result, some scholars are now convinced the stigma is a thoroughly modern phenomenon exacerbated by 20th-century media hype.

Of course its all just nonsense... knock on wood!

[azsnowman]

Heard on the news today that some $800 MILLION will be lost in business due to peoples fear of Friday the 13th!

Some other facts on the news this morning.

*13 people sitting at the last supper*

*Eve temped Adam with an apple on Friday* (how they know this who KNOWS!)

[HURAKAN]

http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/displa ... 42.0.0.php

Why Friday 13th is so unlucky
By Simon Bull

The origin of why Friday 13th is considered such an unlucky day goes back hundreds of years and is shrouded in mystery.

However, there are strong hints around as to why the date which made Jason and hockey masks so infamous is considered unlucky.

For a start there is October 13, 1307, the date from where the modern basis for the Friday 13th superstition is most likely to come from.

It was on this day that the Pope of the Roman Catholic church, in combination with the King of France, sentenced a monastic military order known as the Knights Templar to death and ordered the torture and crucifixion of their leader.

The sixth day of the week, Friday, and the number 13 are each considered to be unlucky in their own right, and when combined they are doubly bad.

The reason why Friday is considered such an unlucky day could date as far back as biblical times. Many negative biblical events took place on a Friday, including the ejection of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the start of the Great Flood, and the crucifixion of Jesus.

Friday's position as the unlucky day may have been strengthened by it being the day of execution of criminals for many years, commonly called Hangman's Day.

The number 13 has also been associated with bad luck for hundreds of years.

Scandinavians believed 13 signified bad luck because their 13th mythological Loki was an evil one who brought great misfortune upon humans.

Christians look to the Last Supper for their suspicion of the number 13. Thirteen was the number of guests at the table, the 13th person being Judas the traitor.

Meanwhile, some say the number 13 was purposely vilified by the priests of patriarchal religions because it represented femininity. Thirteen corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year, and the number was revered in prehistoric goddess-worshipping cultures.

Hindus believed that it was unlucky for 13 people to gather in one place.

Of course, all these possible explanations are just speculation and guesswork, but that does not stop a lot of people cowering away whenever a Friday the 13th comes around.

Most people do not take it too seriously, but there are some who dread the date. By the way, if you're interested, the word paraskevidekatriaphobia means fear of Friday the 13th!

[HURAKAN]

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_193174249.html

Good Question: Why Is Friday The 13th Unlucky?

(WCCO) Last weekend, we enjoyed one of the luckiest days of the year: 7/7/07. However, this weekend the calendar is cursed as we hit the dreaded Friday the 13th.

"People think on Friday the 13th bad stuff will happen," said one young man near St. Paul's Grand Avenue.

"I don't believe in superstitions at all," said a woman.

In fact, just 10 percent of Americans believe Friday the 13th is actually unlucky, but $800 to $900 million in productivity is lost from workers staying home or not flying.

So, why is Friday the 13th considered such an unlucky day?

"I have absolutely no idea," said one St. Paul man.

It seems to be that two unlucky items, the number 13 and Friday, were linked into one very unlucky event. The number 13 is often called "The Devil's Dozen"

"Some numerologists have looked at the number 12 as a complete number and 13 as incomplete," said Dr. John Martens, a biblical scholar at the University of St. Thomas.

There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles of Jesus.

"The one place where people at least look at the number 13 is The Last Supper," said Martens.

Many believe 13 to be unlucky because there were 13 people (12 apostles and Jesus Christ) at that fateful meal. The number 13 is often assigned to Jesus' betrayer Judas.

"But I don't think the Apostles were assigned numbers as such," said Martens.

Others blame Loki, the Norse god of evil and 13th guest at a dinner where the god of good was killed.

So, how did Friday get involved in all this? Many claim a biblical origin for that as well. Jesus Christ was crucified on a Friday. Some say it's also the day Cain killed Abel and Eve tempted Adam.

"However, you don't see any evidence for this in the actual scriptural accounts," said Martens.

Some books like "The Da Vinci Code" claim Friday the 13th stems from the day the church drove an ancient order of knights underground.

However, many scholars believe Friday the 13th to be a much more modern convention that likely began in the 1800's.

That has not stopped the many superstitions that surround the number 13. For instance, legend has it that if you have 13 letters in your first and last name you may have the Devil's luck. Such unlucky souls include Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer and Judas Iscariot.

[HURAKAN]

http://www.moneynews.co.uk/3497/friday- ... omeowners/

Friday 13th 'not unlucky' for homeowners

Tue 10th Jul 2007


UK consumers are statistically not more likely to experience an accident at home on Friday 13th, one of which is imminent this week.

Barclays Insurance believes that claims made to the group on Friday 13ths since 2005 are actually some 15 per cent lower than claims made on other Fridays, despite the traditional superstition surrounding the date.

Mark Till, product manager at Barclays, said: "As the figures show, this so-called unlucky day in fact seems to have been luckier for UK homeowners than most other days."

Barclays Insurance has a number of products available to consumers in order to offer peace of mind through the entire year.

Offering home, motor, travel, student possessions, business, health cover and finer high value home insurance, Barclays Insurance guarantees to drop their premium prices if they can't beat a renewal quote.

Research carried out last year also indicated that Barclays had the largest share of new home insurance business.

[HURAKAN]

FRIDAY THE 13TH POLL:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/pages/ ... y-13th.htm

About Poll

Are you superstitious about Friday the 13th?

Yes, very much so. (1574)
14%

A little bit, maybe. (3003)
26%

No, not at all. (6546)
58%

Total Votes: 11123

Don't know how accurate this poll might be but still shows that people are largely supestitious. My grandmother is number 1 in this field!!!

[HURAKAN]

http://encarta.msn.com/column_fridaythe ... _13th.html

Who's Afraid of Friday the 13th?
by Martha Brockenbrough

So today is Friday the 13th. And if you're thinking, "big deal," you're right. It is a big deal. Such a big deal that nearly $1 billion worth of commerce won't happen, because people are afraid to fly, travel, and shop.

But you're not one of those people, right?

Actually, I'd bet you are. Maybe you're not a paraskevidekatriaphobe. That's the fancy Greek term for people who fear Friday the 13th. Paraskevi is the Greek word for Friday, and dekatria is how Greeks say 13. Phobe, as you might have guessed, relates to phobia. But I'll bet you do things every single day because--know it or not--you're a little bit superstitious.

When you yawned this morning (after getting up on the right side of the bed and starting your day off on the right foot), did you carefully cover your mouth?

Probably so. It's what we do to be polite. But there's more to it than this--people used to think that your soul would rush out of your body if you issued an unprotected yawn.

And the same goes for sneezing. You may say "Gesundheit!" or "Bless you!" to be a nice person.

But what you're actually doing is carrying on a tradition apparently started by the Roman emperor Tiberius. According to one legend, Tiberius would ride in his chariot blessing anyone who sneezed, because a deadly disease at the time, in its early phases, caused sneezing. The more blessings were passed around, the less likely people were to die--or so the thinking went. This same thinking continued in Europe in the Middle Ages, when people were dying of bubonic plague.

Saying "Bless you!" isn't so silly, of course. Combine it with the cover-the-mouth-and-protect-your-soul rule, and you are much less likely to spread nasty germs.
Want to Learn More?
Fear motivates a lot of superstitions. But this is a far cry from phobia--a persistent fear that can alter a person's life, even if he or she knows that it's irrational. There are many different kinds of phobias, including aerophobia (fear of flying), homilophobia (fear of sermons), and pogonophobia. (What's pogonophobia? It's not fear of pogo sticks, it's a fear of beards.) Want to see a list of even more phobias?

But Friday the 13th is special. It combines Friday--considered an unlucky day by some--with the number 13, which has long been considered bad news.

Maybe you never thought of Friday as unlucky. Friday's often payday for us working stiffs. It's the start of the weekend. There's even that "TGIF" restaurant that serves a pretty tasty fried-cheese appetizer (if you want to tempt fate and clog your arteries). Friday is also the Muslim Sabbath and is the day for religious gatherings.

But Friday also carries negative connotations. For starters, Eve is rumored to have given Adam the apple on a Friday, according to Donald Dossey, founder-director of the Phobia Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Talk about a snack that's spelled eternal heartburn, even in Disney films. What fruit knocked out Snow White? Right. The apple.

(The really amusing thing is that the old adage, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," has actually been shown to be true.)

And the number 13 has been feared for a long time, too--except in Italy, where "Fare tredici!" or "To make thirteen!" is the slogan of the national lottery. There, if you get a thirteen, you win.
Want to Learn More?
Some societies have done seemingly extreme things in the name of luck and superstition. Take the Aztecs, who would toss a still-beating human heart into a sacred fire to appease the gods.

About 90 percent of Otis elevators don't have a button for the 13th floor. The U.S. Navy won't launch a ship on Friday the 13th. And, as a former flight attendant once told me, many people just won't fly on the 13th, unless they're headed to Las Vegas. Apparently, the unluckiest day has an opposite effect when you're gambling.

And the fear is historic: A Norse myth has it that a great dinner party with 12 guests was ruined when a 13th crashed the event and killed the god of joy and gladness. There were also 13 guests at the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, who was crucified on a Friday. Finally, a correctly tied hangman's noose has 13 knots, and executions used to happen on Fridays.

So, it's no wonder that we sometimes make a big deal out of Friday the 13th, even today, when we're steeped in science and technology, and know a great deal about how the world works.

For most people, Friday the 13th probably means taking minor precautions. Like avoiding black cats. Since I have a black cat, I can say that's probably a good idea on most days of the year. (Sorry, Spot. But you're a bad kitty.)

If you want to get into the fun of it, though, Dossey has some wacky precautions you can take to stay lucky this Friday the 13th.

* Stand on your head and swallow a chunk of beef gristle
* Take a holey sock to the top of a skyscraper or a mountain
* Walk around the block with a mouthful of water--and be careful not to swallow it
* Tie a sack of peony seeds around your neck (not too tight, though)

If you don't want to get in on the fun of it, well, I'd say you're missing out. You might even be kidding yourself about how rational you really are.

We usually think superstitious people just don't know any better, but that's pretty snobby of us. Superstitions are so common that sometimes we don't even recognize them for what they are.

Is it really bad luck, for example, for the groom to see the bride before the wedding? Why do brides wear something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue? Superstitions, all of them.

But I walked down the aisle myself with blue-painted toenails. So far, it's been a great marriage. Knock on wood.

[azsnowman]

I am not usually superstitious but Friday the 13th's DO bother me!

[HURAKAN]

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761 ... ition.html

Superstition, a belief or practice generally regarded as irrational and as resulting from ignorance or from fear of the unknown. It implies a belief in unseen and unknown forces that can be influenced by objects and rituals. Magic or sorcery, witchcraft, and the occult in general are often referred to as superstitions (see Occultism). Examples of common superstitions include the belief that bad luck will strike the person in front of whom a black cat passes or that some tragedy will befall a person who walks under a ladder. Good luck charms, such as horseshoes, rabbits’ feet, coins, lockets, and religious medals, are commonly kept or worn to ward off evil or to bring good fortune.

In general, superstitious practices and beliefs are most common in situations involving a high degree of risk, chance, and uncertainty, and during times of personal or social stress or crisis, when events seem to be beyond human control. The question of what is or is not superstitious, however, is relative. One person’s beliefs can be another’s superstitions. All religious beliefs and practices may be considered superstition by

[TexasStooge]

the Budget Suites of America in Irving, the number "13" is left off of the room numbers.

[O Town]

Well every year we go to Sanibel we always get cottage #13, the first time we reserved it was the only one left(go figure), hubby was skeptical at first but we went. Its the best location there, has its own private porch unlike the others, and was just remodeled ta boot. And bonus is its usually never booked so we never have a problem reserving the cottage. Its all a bunch of B.S. if you ask me.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<--Although in 2004 it was definitely a bad luck day for quite a few here in FL.

[southerngale]

Meh... just another day to me. It was fun to pretend to get freaked out by it when I was a kid though.

[Category 5]

I had a lovely Friday The 13th.

Went to a carnival with my better half and saw a monster truck called "Category 5"

I'm contacting my lawyers.

[prettywitty]

I'm not paraskevidekatriaphobic, but I am homilophobic.


I'm a social worker at a mental health rehab agency for chronically mentally ill adults. We were going to take them all on a social outing today to Bayou Segnette Wave pool. A bit of a trek and I decided to take my own car instead of going in the van, because I had some work to do and wasn't going to stay long. On the way there, driving on the Westbank Expressway, I heard a strange noise coming from my car and it was shuddering a little and pulling to the right. I checked when I got there and didn't see anything unusual. We weren't able to get into the park because they were short-staffed and filled to capacity, so we took them to the public pool at Audubon Park instead, much closer to home. Anyway, on the way back I took the Huey P. Long bridge, which is a nightmare in and of itself - no place to pull over, harrowingly narrow lanes, very high above the Mississippi River and with a train trestle in the middle of it. I heard the noise again, but got across the river safely, met the clients and staff at the pool (that was highly amusing: a bunch of schizophrenics in a big public pool with hundreds of screaming children), had a nice time and went home. When I got back home, I looked and my left front tire is completely shredded. Amazing that I got home without a blow-out and I have no idea how it happened. Anyway, you could say it was unlucky, but I see it as incredibly lucky that nothing happened on the expressway or the bridge. So, I rest my case.

[TexasStooge]

I actually met a person at a small pool party who has Triskaidekaphobia. Not gon' say who though.

[HURAKAN]

Since we're going green, I didn't want to start a new thread on Friday the 13th, and we're going to use recycled material!!!

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!!