Posted on 10/13/2006 8:52:48 AM PDT by blam
Friday the 13th Phobia Rooted in Ancient History
John Roach
for National Geographic News
Updated August 12, 2004
This Friday some people will be so paralyzed with fear they simply won't get out of bed. Others will steadfastly refuse to fly on an airplane, buy a house, or act on a hot stock tip. It's Friday the 13th, and they're freaked out.
"It's been estimated that [U.S] $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they would normally do," said Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina.
Among other services, Dossey's organization counsels clients on how to overcome fear of Friday the 13th, a phobia that he estimates afflicts 17 to 21 million people in the United States.
Symptoms range from mild anxiety to full-blown panic attacks. The latter may cause people to reshuffle schedules or miss an entire day's work.
When it comes to bad luck of any kind, Richard Wiseman—a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, England—found that people who consider themselves unlucky are more likely to believe in superstitions associated with bad luck.
"Their beliefs and behavior are likely to be part of a much bigger worldview," he said. "They will believe that luck is a magical force and that it can ruin their lives."
Wiseman found that one quarter of the 2,068 people questioned in a 2003 survey associate the number 13 with bad luck. People with such feelings, he found, are more likely . .
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
I always look at Friday the 13th as a lucky day for me.
Another suggestion is that the belief originated in a Norse myth about twelve gods having a feast in the hall of the sea-god Aegir. The mischievous Loki gate-crashed the party as an uninvited 13th guest and arranged for Hod, the blind god of darkness, to throw a branch of mistletoe at Balder, the god of joy and gladness. Balder was killed instantly and the Earth was plunged into darkness and mourning as a result. This, however, is untenable. The original Old Norse text, the poem Lokasenna in the Edda, mentions 17 gods by name at the feast. Loki is indeed a gatecrasher, but he is not the thirteenth person present. Nor is there any link between this episode and the killing of Balder.
The first explanation, however, seems more relevant to the superstition linked to having 13 people at the same table during a meal. This, recorded at the end of the eighteenth century, is the earliest known instance of the ill-luck of 13 in Britain. The belief was that the first person to rise from the table would be the first to die.
There is also another theory that Friday the 13th of October 1307 was the day that Philip IV of France arrested and subsequenty tortured and killed hundreds of the French Knights Templar to get their money for the French treasury. This theory is used in the factcomic Uncle Scrooge and The Crown Of The Crusader Kings[1] by Don Rosa. Mr. Rosa does here even proof that it wasn't friday the 13th they were arrested. One other note which predates all of the aforementioned is that the first Passover seems to have occurred on Friday the 13th. The death of the firstborns of Egypt occurred on a Shabbat on the 14th of Nisan in the evening. But the Jewish calendar counts days from sunset to sunset so this would have been Friday the 13th in terms of the gentile reckoning of the days. (Exodus 12:6) Feminists have argued that because of the lunar year and Friday being named after a goddess in most European pagan calendars, the fear of Friday the 13th is a patriarchal invention, associating femininity with bad luck.
From Wickedpedia
Fear of Friday the 13th comes from the day when our Intelligent Designer, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, created midgets, left-handed people, and redheads.
...or maybe not. That's just what I read at Wikipedia and the Discovery Institute's website.
I got layed off my job today. Seems Friday the 13th is right on to me.
IZZIT just the U.S.?.........
it's payday and the weekend,how bad could it be?
...to be idiots?
I don't think so! LOL!
Primitivism.
I've already experienced an amazing stroke of luck today.
I suffer from phobiapostphobia. I'm terrified of FR posts that discuss phobias. Replying here is part of my therapy.
Sorry to hear that. I was laid off once in 1975 and it forced me to do something different and that difference allowed me to retire at the age of 50, 12 years ago. Make lemonaide.
[Friday the 13th Phobia Rooted in Ancient History]
And in other breaking news....
I've always associated it with the letter "M".
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