Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Now what the heck does that title mean? Well, paraskevi is Greek for Friday and dekatria is Greek for thirteen. Most people know that a phobia is an unreasonable fear. Soooo ... paraskevidekatriaphobia is the egghead way of saying fear of Friday the 13th.

If you go out and ask people if anything bad has happened to them on Friday the 13th, you will probably get a considerable amount of them saying yes. Of course, the same number of people probably had bad things happen to them on Tuesday the 23rd ... but since that isn't an "unlucky day", they probably don't remember the date. But why is Friday the 13th considered unlucky? Come step into the Blogway Boys basement and learn something.

On Friday, October 13th, 1307 Jaques de Molay, the head of the Knights Templar, and 60 of his senior knights were arrested by King Phillip IV of France. They were subsequently tortured, "confessed" and were executed. Now while this was extremely unlucky for these knights ... no ... I checked, it doesn't affect me at all.

Or ...

12 Gods were having a feast in the hallowed halls of Asgard when Loki (god of mischief) crashed the party as the 13th guest and tricked Hod (the blind god of darkness) into shooting Baldur (the god of joy and gladness) with a mistle-toe tipped arrow and killing him. This plunged the world into despair ... but no ... still doesn't affect me.

Or ...

Judas was the 13th person to the last supper ... he betrayed Jesus ... and Christ was crucified on Good Friday. Once again, bad luck for the Christ ... but since he died for our sins, I guess good luck for the rest of the world.

It is estimated that $800 to $900 million dollars is lost to the economy because of this silly superstition. Some people don't go to work, they refuse to fly and they don't make major purchases on the 13th. So maybe it isn't lucky for business at all. It has become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

So, what bad things have happened to you on Friday the 13th?

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