Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Friday the 13th. Ho Hum.

Should I be scared? Are you scared?

So what is it about the number 13, and especially Friday the 13th?

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the fear of the Friday the 13th, and triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13, and it shows in quite a few places.

Buildings often have no 13th floor (well they do, but they number the 13th floor the 14th floor. Does this make it any "safer"? It is after all still the 13th floor).

Many people (in the western world) avoid work, driving, eating in restaurants, etc. on Friday the 13th. There is an irrational fear attached to this day. Why?



13 is the sixth number in the most primary Fibonacci sequence - 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. Fibonacci was a 13th century mathematician.



13 is a prime number - divisible by only one and itself.

There used to be 13 months of 28 days in a year (364 days), and 13 signs of the zodiac (the Gemini twins each had their own zodiacal sign). Women have 13 menstrual cycles (28 days) over the course of a year, and there are 13 moon cycles related.

Strangely, there is evidence to suggest that Friday the 13th is actually unlucky. Psychologists have found that some people are especially likely to have accidents or fall ill on Friday the 13th. This has been attributed to such people feeling a heightened state of anxiety on that day (see nocebo effect). The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina estimates that in the United States alone, $800 or $900 million is lost in business each Friday the 13th because people will not fly or do business they would normally do. (from Wikipedia - link).

Some say that Friday the 13th gained it's reputation after the Knights Templar were arrested on Friday, October 13th 1307. Most of them were tortured and executed, and all of their holdings were seized. Some say it goes further back - to the Garden of Eden.


The name "Friday" was derived from a Norse deity worshipped on the sixth day, known either as Frigg (goddess of marriage and fertility)(is this the root of the word "frigging"?), or Freya (goddess of sex and fertility), or both, the two figures having become intertwined in the handing-down of myths over time (the etymology of "Friday" has been given both ways). Frigg/Freya corresponded to Venus, the goddess of love of the Romans, who named the sixth day of the week in her honor "dies Veneris."


Friday was actually considered quite lucky by pre-Christian Teutonic peoples, we are told — especially as a day to get married — because of its traditional association with love and fertility. All that changed when Christianity came along. The goddess of the sixth day — most likely Freya in this context, given that the cat was her sacred animal — was recast in post-pagan folklore as a witch, and her day became associated with evil doings.about.com


The Mayans did some pretty freaky stuff in observing time. They calculated time over 100's of millions of years - pinpointing specific days, in one instance at Tikal, 400 million years ago. They had cycles of 13 days, 20 days, 260 days, 52 years, etc. Interestingly (and simplistically), it all revovles around the number 13. The Mayans were also aware of, and using zero even befor the Arabs discovered it.

Some say that the world will end (according to the Mayan Calendar) on December 21st 2012 - the end of the 13th Bak'tun, but the Mayans actually indicated that the world would "end" on October 13th 4772 - or did they?. Gird your loins none-the-less.

2012 Mayan calendar
The end of the 13th b'ak'tun is conjectured to have been of great significance to the Maya, but does not necessarily mark the end of the world according to their beliefs, but a new beginning or time of re-birth. According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the Quiché Maya of the colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fourth world. The Popol Vuh describes the first three creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fourth world where men were placed. The Maya believed that the fourth world would end in catastrophe and the fifth and final world would be created that would signal the end of mankind.

The last creation ended on a long count of 13.0.0.0.0. Another 13.0.0.0.0 will occur on December 21, 2012, and it has been discussed in many New Age articles and books that this will be the end of this creation or something else entirely. However, the Maya abbreviated their long counts to just the last five vigesimal places. There were an infinite number of larger units that were usually not shown. When the larger units were shown (notably on a monument from Coba), the end of the last creation is expressed as 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, where the units are obviously supposed to be 13s in all larger places. In this age we are only approaching 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.13.0.0.0.0, and the larger places are nowhere near the 13s that would match the end of the last creation. (Schele and Friedel 1990: 430)

This is confirmed by a date from Palenque, which projects forward in time to 1.0.0.0.0.0, which will occur on October 13, 4772. The Classic Period Maya likely did not believe that the end of this age would occur in 2012. According to the Maya, there will be a baktun ending in 2012, a significant event being the end of a 13th 400 year period, but not the end of the world.Wikipedia


So there is the tip of an iceberg of facts, conjectures, superstitions, etc., relating to the number 13, and Friday the 13th. I will, over time, be commenting on numbers and their strange qualities. There is indeed a lot of strangeness to look at.

Happy Friday the 13th!