morning all,
try to stay calm today during this very unusual day where 13 meets Friday.
Question: "What is the meaning of Friday the 13th?"
Answer: Friday the 13th occurs from one to three times per year when the 13th day of any month falls on a Friday. The fear of Friday the 13th is called “paraskevidekatriaphobia,” a word derived from the Greek words
Paraskeví (Friday) and
dekatreís (thirteen), attached to
phobia (fear). Some people are so paralyzed by paraskevidekatriaphobia that they avoid normal activities, and some refuse to travel on that day. Friday the 13th is thought to be a day of unlucky events, although the origins of such ideas are unclear. Consequently, several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition.
One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day. Combining two unlucky elements into one day would make it all the more fearsome, and so it has become. In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners since Jesus was arrested and crucified after the Passover meal He shared with His twelve disciples (
Matthew 26–27). The fact that He was crucified on a Friday also adds credence to this theory.
Good fortune out there today
