October 13, 2006
Volume 42, Issue 4
Friday the 13th
Today, 17 to 21 million Americans will steadfastly refuse to drive a car, fly on an airplane, buy a house or simply get out of bed because they are deathly freaked out that it’s Friday the 13th. In doing so they will cost American businesses roughly $800 million to $900 million, an average cost the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute of Asheville, N.C., says afflicts American businesses each Friday the 13th. Is it the lumping of two superstitious signs to form one hex? Thirteen has long been designated as the unluckiest of all numbers. Judas was the thirteenth guest at the Last Supper. The lunar solar calendar, commonly used in goddess worshiping societies, consisted of 13 months. In ancient Rome, witches were said to have gathered in groups of 12, the thirteenth member was supposed to be the devil. Airports commonly have no gate 13. Hospitals have a room 12 and 14, no thirteen. And no one ever lives on the thirteenth floor of a sky rise building. Friday is named after a goddess commonly found in pagan calendars. Apparently Friday the 13th of October 1307 is the day that Philip of France arrested, tortured and killed hundreds of the French Knights Templar to extract their wealth for the French treasury. Old folk tales remind us that we should never start the harvest on Friday. It’s even supposed bad luck to be born on Friday. That might explain why there is a psychological term for people with a fear of Friday the 13th: Paraskavedekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia, is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, fear of the number thirteen. Is there a phobia for people afraid of having to spell paraskavedektriaphobia? What’s that called? But if that was the case, wouldn’t Sunday the 1st be just as freaky as Friday the 13th? After all, all months whose first day falls on a Sunday will have a Friday the 13th. Shouldn’t we acknowledge the curse of this prophetic indicator? There are charts that predated the next and upcoming Friday the 13th. The next occurs in April 2007. Here’s a spoiler: There are going to be 688 Friday the 13ths in the next 4,800 months. Is there really a chance that one of those 688 Fridays are going to signal the end of the world? Is that what these millions of people are thinking? That would be understandable if we were of Mayan descent. The Mayan calendar puts us as living in the fourth world which is set to be reborn on Dec. 12, 2012. That world, the Mayans believe, is set to expire on Oct. 13, 4772, which is a Friday. But what about the rest of the world? Are people in Istanbul losing their marbles over a silly date? Are the Swiss giving up their cheese as a sacrifice to the gods? The Greeks and the Spaniards similarly have Tuesday the 13th. But Tuesday isn’t quite as scary as Friday. Monday… sure, but Tuesday? Tuesday’s are bound to be crappy; it’s the beginning of the week. Not Friday. It is scary to mess with a person’s Friday. If you mess with a person’s Friday you ought to make it memorable. Eve supposedly tempted Adam on a Friday. Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Cain slayed Abel on Friday the 13th. The great flood started on a Friday. Solomon’s temple came crashing down after a long Friday. Just about everyone remembers a time when their boss asked them to work late on a Friday. What about Good Friday? Is it good if it falls on Friday the 13th? Famous people born on Friday the 13th outnumber famous people who have died on Friday the 13th by a nearly ten-to-one ratio. That’s not so bad. But people with 13 letters in their name are said to be of a bad breed. Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer and Theodore Bundy, to name but a few. All have thirteen letters in their name. In the 1800s, the British Navy commissioned a ship called the H.M.S. Friday in order to quell the superstition that sailing out on a Friday was a bad omen. The navy selected the crew on a Friday, launched the ship on a Friday and even selected a man named James Friday as the ship’s captain. Then, one Friday morning, the ship set off on its maiden voyage. . . and disappeared forever. So maybe Friday the 13th, the day, isn’t as unlucky as it is unlucky to be the unluckiest of combinations of luck for a person to have on one day. That depends on what you’re doing that day. If that’s the case, then we are all guilty of perpetuating the misnomer of naming Friday the 13th as the unluckiest day of all. Regardless of what you believe, 21 million people will be at home, shut up in their rooms, their mirrors and ladders tucked out of the way, the salt placed deep in the cupboard, with their doors locked and the shutters pulled tight. They’ll be there, fingers crossed, cringing at the thought of another unlucky day.
|
