Learnings: Friday the Thirteenth

I just realized that it's Friday the 13th! I think it's because I'm still thinking that I'm in the Philippines where it's already Saturday! So? Why the big fuss over Friday the 13th? Well according to Wikipedia, Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck. Hmm must be killer for my close friend because her birthday is on the 13th! Plus, she told me that she was actually born on Friday the 13th! Ha! She must have a life worth of bad luck, right? Wrong!! I believe that bad luck is all in the mind. But that's just me!

The History

Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck in English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, as well as in Austria, Germany, Estonia, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, and the Philippines.

Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece, Romania and Spanish-speaking countries, for example, it is Tuesday the 13th that is considered unlucky. In Italy, it is Friday the 17th.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (meaning fear). The term is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple phobia (fear) of the number thirteen appearing in any case.

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