Well, we’ve been spending a lot of time these past two weeks dealing with the abandonment of logic and science by adults. So, today would be a good day to discuss one of the craziest delusions of the bunch-paraskevidekatriaphobia and it’s related delusion- triskadekaphobia. What are these? Fear of Friday the 13th and the number 13, in general.
I always laugh when I enter an elevator and recognize that some nutso designed the building- one who can’t count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15…. Yup. This building has no 13th floor. (Of course it does- but they call it 14 to satisfy the phobics.)
You know what’s really amazing? This craziness is relatively new. There is no known record of folks running for the hills when it’s Friday the 13th before the dawn of modern science in the late 19th century. (See? It’s not just the current crop of adults who fear the exploding volume of knowledge. Back in the 19th century, science was blooming too- and folks were complaining that things were changing too quickly.)
Believe it or not, this fear is attributed to the 13 folks who watched Jesus crucified- and that this occurred on a Friday. (Now, that’s a trick, since Jesus wasn’t born in 0 CE, and which calendar do you think Jesus used? Because he WAS Jewish and there was no Gregorian calendar.) And, Friday was considered a bad day for travel or to start new projects since the 14th century. Why? No one knows. I’m sure it was something in Chaucer’s brain, since he used this device in his Canterbury Tales.
But, it seems paraskevidekatriaphobia really took off in the 20th Century.
It’s the 21st. It’s time to put childish things to bed. Especially since February 2015 is a ‘perfect’ month- 4 weeks, 7 days each. So, it also means March 2015 will have a Friday the 13th, too.
