Maggie
Member
Danielle Foster, Online Calendar Manager
5/12/2005
If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all of them will die in a year. Some buildings do not have a thirteenth floor, and Thirteenth Avenue is often missing from city maps. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have horrible luck. Want proof? Think: Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Albert De Salvo and Jeffrey Dahmer. Around the world, people take extra precautions as Friday the 13th approaches.
Although most people are not aware of the origins of the notorious day and number of doom, the morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th actually has a name: paraskevidekatriaphobia. Though the fear has a recognized name, the history is more questionable. Anxiousness on Friday the 13th emanates from several traditions, primarily Christian theology and Viking tradition, which combine separate fears of Friday and the number 13.
During the Last Super, there were 13 people in attendance, one of whom was Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus. The fear of Fridays can also be traced to the day Jesus was killed, which occurred on a Friday.
Norse tradition provides an explanation for the fear of the number 13 as well. According to legend, 12 gods were invited to a banquet. The evil god of mischief, Loki, was not invited but came to the party anyway, bringing the number in attendance to 13. Loki invoked disaster upon the group, resulting in the death of the god of goodness, Balder. The Norse, therefore, concluded that the number 13 was bad luck.
5/12/2005
If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all of them will die in a year. Some buildings do not have a thirteenth floor, and Thirteenth Avenue is often missing from city maps. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have horrible luck. Want proof? Think: Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Albert De Salvo and Jeffrey Dahmer. Around the world, people take extra precautions as Friday the 13th approaches.
Although most people are not aware of the origins of the notorious day and number of doom, the morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th actually has a name: paraskevidekatriaphobia. Though the fear has a recognized name, the history is more questionable. Anxiousness on Friday the 13th emanates from several traditions, primarily Christian theology and Viking tradition, which combine separate fears of Friday and the number 13.
During the Last Super, there were 13 people in attendance, one of whom was Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus. The fear of Fridays can also be traced to the day Jesus was killed, which occurred on a Friday.
Norse tradition provides an explanation for the fear of the number 13 as well. According to legend, 12 gods were invited to a banquet. The evil god of mischief, Loki, was not invited but came to the party anyway, bringing the number in attendance to 13. Loki invoked disaster upon the group, resulting in the death of the god of goodness, Balder. The Norse, therefore, concluded that the number 13 was bad luck.
