"the fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia, frigga meaning "Friday" and triskaidekaphobia (or paraskevidekatriaphobia) being a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning "thirteen") attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning "fear"). The word was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953."I, too, first appeared in the mainstream in '53, but I digress...
Follow the link and find way more than you ever wanted to know about Friday the 13th and the origins of phobia, including the theory related in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code about the day the Knights Templar were virtually eliminated by King Philip's forces in France: Friday, October 13, 1307. Made for a great plot link in that excellent novel.
I personally like the notation that:
"(h)owever, some experts think that it is relatively recent and is a modern-day invention. For example, the superstition is rarely found before the 20th century, when it became extremely common. One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth, in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th."
To whit, I say pish, tosh. Am I going to stay indoors, afraid to be out and about, afraid to even get out of bed, just because Friday happens to fall on the 13th day of a month? That's going to happen at least once each year...and possibly as many as three times, like in 2012...and, I'm personally unwilling to release 24 of my precious hours to that fear, much less 72. Heck no...I just grab my lucky rabbit's foot, walk around the block with my mouth full of water without swallowing it to be 100% safe, then kiss my wedding ring for good luck and go! [You do know I'm just kidding, right?]
Anyway, I could never, ever call this particular Friday the 13th "unlucky," no matter what. You see, today we got the news that SIL LaD, who has been so very, very sick this week has made a remarkable recovery. I even got to talk to her today...and she sounded fantastic. Hooray and hallelujah!
Now, if only my MegaMillion$ numbers could come in tonight, I could prove how lucky Friday the 13th can be. You'll be the first to know...!
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