Friday the 13th

Before I offer you the information I found on this occasion. I want to ask you superstitious?

The day of Friday, 13th, since time immemorial, has so far attracted many people the vague feeling of primitive fear. On this date, many are so paralyzed for fear they do not even get out of bed. Others refuse to fly, travel at all, others postpone the purchase of a home. Restaurants and amusement facilities remain empty. It is estimated that this day alone in the US business loses between $ 800 and $ 900 million as many people just do not go to work. Donald Dosi, founder of the Stress Management Center and the Phobos Institute of Asheville, North Carolina, says that the fear of Friday 13th is torturing between 17 and 21 million Americans. Symptoms range from moderate anxiety to total panic. Psychologists find that people who are considered unhappy are more likely to believe in superstition related to bad luck. A quarter of respondents associate the number 13 with bad luck. It is this group of people most likely to be worried about in days like Friday 13th.

The fear of Friday 13th is called paraskevi dekatria phobia (a combination of the words Friday 13 and fear in Greek). Nevertheless, many people around the globe continue to believe that day. Myth, reality, or just the stuff of people, that day exists and is believed in it.

Researchers are still looking for the roots of superstition for “black Friday”. There are several hypotheses: the god of evil and fire Loki invaded uninvited at the celebration as the 13th guest and mournfully killed with a mistletoe arrow the god of Balder joy. The earth sunk in darkness and mourning.

More recently, the date of 13 October 1307 clearly stood out, when Jacques de Mole, the Grand Master of the Order of the Templars and thousands of Knights of the Order, were arrested by order of the French King Philip IV and Pope Clement V. Faced with terrible torture, they confessed to accusations of heresy, sodomy, and all other crimes. Hundreds were burned at the stake, others were executed later. From this day on, Friday, 13th, is considered a bad and miserable day by the Templars’ followers.

In ancient Rome sorcerers gathered in groups of 12. They believed that the 13th in the group was the devil himself.

According to numerologists the number 13 “suffers” because of his position after 12. There are 12 months in a year, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus. Tarot 13th card is the death card.

The fear of the number 13 is strong today. More than 80% of the skyscrapers do not have the 13th floor. Many airports miss the 13th runway. Few hotels are without the 13th floor or the 13th room. In Formula 1 there is no car number 13. The streets in Florence have no number 13. 12 and a half or 12A sounds much more disturbing.

On December 13, 1907, Friday, near the Channel Islands, the American seven-figure schooner (the only one of his kind), Thomas Lawson, named after his owner, was sank – the American businessman and writer Thomas W. Lawson, whose most famous work “Friday – Thirteenth”.

The names in the original of some of the most famous serial killers contain 13 letters: Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Teodor Ted ) Bundy (Theodore (Ted) Bundy) and Henry Lee Lucas (Henry Lee Lucas).

The photo from Google’s gallery

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