Paraskevidekatriaphobia (What?)

Huh?  What the hell does that word mean?

Well, we asked our intrepid new reporter/ personal assistant/ voice mail diva/ advertising manager Ashley Hester to get on it, since the term apparently has something to do with today’s date – Friday the 13th.

Specifically, we requested 13 of the most readily-available facts about the date Americans

1. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia, a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskevi (meaning Friday), and dekatris (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (?????) (meaning fear). The term triskaidekaphobia derives from the Greek words “tris”, meaning ‘three’, “kai”, meaning ‘and’, and “deka”, meaning ‘ten.’ the whole word means three and ten. The word was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953.

2. The next instance of this appears on the calendar for the year 2015

3. In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.

4. Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century’s The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

5. Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album was released in the UK on Friday, February 13, 1970.

6. Friday the 13th is the highest grossing horror franchise in the United States, with approximately $614 million.

7. According to Smithsonian Magazine “fear of the #13 costs American a billion dollars per year in absenteeism, train and plane cancellations, and reduced commerce on the 13th of the month.”

8. The US Seal has 13 stars, bars, feathers in the eagle’s tail, 13 bars in one claw, 13 olive branches in the other.

9. The ill-fated Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 CST on Apr. 11, 1970. The sum of the date’s digits (4-11-70) is 13 (as in 4+1+1+7+0 = 13). And the explosion that crippled the spacecraft occurred on April 13 (not a Friday). The crew did make it back to Earth safely, however.

10. Butch Cassidy, notorious American train and bank robber, was born on Friday, April 13, 1866.

11. Fidel Castro was born on Friday, Aug. 13, 1926.

12. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13

13. Famous people with unfortunate links to Friday the 13th include Al Capone who was arrested and sentenced to jail on Friday 13th, Tupac Shakur who was killed in Las Vegas on Friday the 13th, Benny Goodman, the King of Swing, who died on Friday, June 13th, 1986, and the 38th Vice President of the United States, Hubert H. Humphrey who died on January 13, 1978.

2-Pac?  No way!

Somebody grab us a 40 of King Cobra, y’izzall.  Cause we-a gonna pour one out for our homie.  Oh, and Hubert H. Humphrey, too.

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