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Are You Paraskavedekatriaphobic?

The Marginally Useful 23.5 Guide to the Meaning of Friday 13th

By Mary Magdalene Smith February 14, 2009

"Drink wine, and you will sleep well. Sleep, and you will not sin. Avoid sin, and you will be saved. Ergo, drink wine and be saved."--Medieval German saying
© Baby Bacchus, Guido Reni (1623)

It is said that the most popular Urban Myth about why Friday the 13th is considered to be unlucky has to do with the demise of an order of "warrior monks" called the Knights Templar.

The story goes that, by 1307, there were rumors circulating against the Templars concerning their gross corruption and lewd secret initiation rituals. Consequently, following their arrest on Friday the 13th of October, 1307, King Philip the Fair of France imposed a gruesome sentence--the Grandmasters were burned at the stake and the Order was wiped out.And, even today, Friday the 13th is still mourned by neo-Templar societies around the globe.

It's possible that there could be a degree of religious bias regarding the superstition surrounding the number 13 itself. Moon based religions measure time according to the 13 lunar cycles that comprise a year.

But, Christianity is a solar based religion, with Christ symbolizing the Sun which, in turn, measures time as it progresses through the twelve months of the year. The solar symbolism of the number 12 is reflected in the archetypes of the 12 Apostles (although Judas, the unlucky 13th apostle who betrayed Christ, was present at the Last Supper), the 12 Tribes of Judah, the 12 Labors of Hercules, and the 12 zodiacal asterisms (astrology signs).

In fact, although there is technically a 13th constellation called Ophiuchus (the Serpent Holder), sandwiched between Scorpio and Sagittarius along path of the ecliptic, this 13th astrology sign is determinedly ignored by uranographers.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, a word derived from the Greek words Paraskeví (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (meaning thirteen), appended by phobía (meaning fear). The term is said to have first surfaced in a mainstream source in 1953, indicating that the fear of Friday the 13th is a modern concept.

However, the belief in unlucky days is ancient—they were regarded as Dismal Days or more specifically as "Egyptian" Days, as the Egyptians were known to be experts at calculating malefic influences. Let’s be grateful that we aren't living in medieval times, when at least two days in every month were considered to harbor unfortunate influences which needed to be addressed.

The mitigation of inauspicious timings inevitably developed into an artform known as Talismanic Magic, leading to the proliferation of grimoires and secret texts such as the Picatrix, which Cosimo de Medici went to great lengths to have translated before he died in 1464.

Remedies to counteract the effect of the adversity were sometimes even more extreme than the superstition itself. For instance, the Picatrix recommends beheading a Cyprian boy in order to allay misfortune, but only after you've anointed him with sesame oil and caused him to sneeze in the correct manner (presumably to expel his malevolent aethers).

Fortunately, modern folklore antidotes are less heinous. One recommended practice to offset the negative effects of Friday the 13th is to burn all your socks with holes in them on top of a mountain. Another is to stand on your head and chew a chunk of gristle.

But you'll all be happy to know that this year Friday the 13th of February falls at the beginning of the three day Festival of Dionysus (also known as Bacchus), the Greek god of wine, which is traditionally celebrated by prolonged drunken revels.

And, as an extra bonus, the Feast of Saint Valentine falls in the middle of the Bacchanalian festivities--and we all know what that means…