OT: Friday the 13th - paraskavedekatriaphobia

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Happy Friday the 13th, everybody!

 

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

 

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th

 

A Friday occurring on the 13th day of any month is considered to be a

day of bad luck in English, German, Polish and Portuguese-speaking

cultures around the globe. Similar superstitions exist in some other

traditions. In Greece or Spain, for example, Tuesday the 13th takes the

same role. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia

(a word that is derived from the concatenation of the Greek words

ΠαÏασκευή, δεκατÏείς, and φοβία, meaning Friday,

thirteen, and phobia

respectively; alternative spellings include paraskevodekatriaphobia or

paraskevidekatriaphobia) or friggatriskaidekaphobia, and is a

specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number

thirteen.

 

History of Friday the 13th

No historical date has been verifiable identified as the origin of the

superstition. Before the 20th century, although there is evidence that

the number 13 was considered unlucky, and Friday was considered unlucky,

there was no link between them. The first documented mention of a

" Friday the 13th " is generally listed as occurring in the early

1900's.[1][2] [3]

 

However, many popular stories exist about the origin of the concept:

 

The Last Supper which is supposed by popular Christian belief to have

been on " Friday " , with Judas numbered among the thirteen guests (Jesus

plus his 12 apostles), and that the Crucifixion of Jesus which is also

supposed by popular Christian belief to have occurred Friday. However,

Judas was not actually present for the latter part of the meal, and a

close examination of the New Testament passages reveals that the

Crucifixion occurred on a " Wednesday. "

 

One theory, recently offered in the novel The Da Vinci Code holds that

it came about not as the result of a convergence, but a catastrophe, a

single historical event that happened nearly 700 years ago.

 

The catastrophe was the decimation of the Knights Templar, the legendary

order of " warrior monks " formed during the Christian Crusades to combat

Islam. Renowned as a fighting force for 200 years, by the 1300s the

order had grown so pervasive and powerful it was perceived as a

political threat by kings and popes alike and brought down by a

church-state conspiracy, as recounted by Katharine Kurtz in Tales of the

Knights Templar (Warner Books: 1995):

 

" On October 13, 1307, a day so infamous that Friday the 13th would

become a synonym for ill fortune, officers of King Philip IV of France

carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left

several thousand Templars — knights, sergeants, priests, and serving

brethren — in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, various

obscenities, and homosexual practices. None of these charges was ever

proven, even in France — and the Order was found innocent elsewhere —

but in the seven years following the arrests, hundreds of Templars

suffered excruciating tortures intended to force 'confessions,' and more

than a hundred died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake. "