Friday the 13th

What a weird day Friday the 13th is.

I don't even know where the history of this weird superstition came from that says that Friday the 13ths are "unlucky" or a "bad omen." If Friday the 13th is as unlucky as people say they are then 2009 is going to be a rough year. Already this is the second Friday the 13th, and the third one occurs this November. According to calendarists (the people who study calendars for a living) say that having three Friday the 13ths in the same year only happens once every 11 years. That means the last time this happened was in 1998. So if we think back 11 years what happened in your life at that time? 1998 just happens to be the year I turned 13 oooooooo. . . hash that one out nemerologists. . . 1998 seemed to be a pretty normal non-standout year in my book in any case.

Anyways, apparently so many people actually have fears about Friday the 13th they even have a name for them. It is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia.

It sounds like to me that they just put a bunch of words together and make sure they have phobia at the end. Like Drivathrashervastereophobia could be a fear of driving with the radio on. It's as though people need to feel like they have an actual disorder or medical disease so doctors or whoever makes up these names oblige and say you have Parisiadecaguaveraphobia, or fear of 10 natives of Paris, France holding a glass of water. Sounds good right? Right.

(sorry if this image scares any of you who suffer from Parisiadecaguaveraphobia, at least it's just one and not ten . . .)

I remember when I was little and the Crockett's still lived kitty-corner from our house, I went over there on a Friday the 13th and Carole had Winston and Taylor wearing all of their clothes backward so as to ward off the bad luck that comes from this terrible day. Naturally, I went into their bathroom and changed my clothes around so nothing bad or unlucky would happen to me.

My sister, being my sister, has embraced the day. I did not know it until recently but it's one of her favorite non-holiday days and she actually tries to celebrate it. We call her Philiaparaskavedekatriact, or a lover of Friday the 13th. So the way she sees it, this is acutally one of her lucky years where she gets to try to have 3 parties on a non-holiday day. . . lucky . . .