Do You Have Paraskevidekatriaphobia?

by Raya



Well, do you? What do you mean you don't know what that is! It's as plain
as the nose on your fa…eeek, a black cat is trying to cross my path!

*pant pant* Whew, that was close. Okay, okay, I'll tell you what it means,
jeez!

Here's the internet dictionary version: A morbid, irrational
fear of Friday the 13th.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, which is a phobia or fear of the number 13.

And guess what today is? *gulp*

So, do you think it's safe to play any of your favorite games today?
Is it even safe to go browsing through forums? Is there any truth at all
to the belief that Friday the 13th is unsafe? Let's take a look.

The very first thing that happened was when I tried to save this draft.
I tried four times…I was not doing anything wrong, but it just would
not save. Persistence carried it through, but it made me scratch my head.

What do legends and history have to say about Friday the 13th?

Okay, here's one: a group of researchers did a survey in the UK to find
out if Friday the 13th was, in fact, any different from other Fridays
of the year. The most amazing findings resulted. Apparently, in the region
they sampled, even though fewer people took their cars to work on that
particular Friday the 13th, the number of hospital admissions due to vehicular
accidents was significantly higher than on "normal" Fridays.

This was part of a paper called "Is
Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?
" unveiled in 1993. The study's
goal was to correlate "the relation between health, behavior, and
superstition surrounding Friday 13th in the United Kingdom." To do
this, the authors of the paper compared the ratio of traffic volume to
the number of automobile accidents on two separate days, Friday the 6th
and Friday the 13th, over a number of years.

Snopes had quite
a lot to say about Friday
the 13th
.

The reasons why Friday came to be regarded as a day
of bad luck have been obscured by the mists of time--some of the more
common theories link it to a significant event in Christian tradition
said to have taken place on Friday, such as the Crucifixion, Eve's offering
the apple to Adam in the Garden of Eden, the beginning of the Great Flood,
or the confusion at the Tower of Babel. Chaucer alluded to Friday as a
day on which bad things seemed to happen in the Canterbury Tales
as far back as the late 14th century ("And on a Friday fell
all this mischance"
), but references to Friday as a day
connected with ill luck generally start to show up in Western literature
around the mid-17th century:

"Now Friday came, you old wives say, Of all the
week's the unluckiest day."
(1656)

From the early 19th century onward, examples abound of Friday's being
considered a bad day for all sorts of ordinary tasks, from writing letters
to conducting business and receiving medical treatment:

"I knew another poor woman, who lost half her time
in waiting for lucky days, and made it a rule never to . . . write a letter
on business . . . on a Friday - so her business was never done, and her
fortune suffered accordingly."
(1804)

"There are still a few respectable tradesmen and
merchants who will not transact business, or be bled, or take physic,
on a Friday, because it is an unlucky day."
(1831)

Does this have anything to do with whether we play our games or sit and
daydream about playing Vanguard today?

I am of a semi-superstitious bent of thinking—that is, I do knock
on wood if I say something good is happening but I don't usually go around
ladders and I'm not afraid that stepping on a crack will break my mother's
back. However, I do take note of Friday the 13th when it appears every
year. I recall one year (whilst playing EQ) that our raid wiped—twice.
Now, was that due to Friday the 13th or was it a self-fulfilling prophecy?
I can't get that UK study out of my mind.

Here's another one to take into consideration--the untimely demise of
the powerful Knights
Templar
(somewhat akin to our beloved EQ and Vanguard paladins) at
the hands of the King of France on Friday the 13th, 1306.

Another suggestion regarding the belief that the number 13 is bad luck
originated in a Norse myth about twelve
gods
having a feast in Valhalla. The mischievous Loki
gatecrashed the party as an uninvited 13th guest and arranged for Hod,
the blind god of darkness, to shoot Balder, the god of joy and gladness,
with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. Balder was killed, and the Earth was plunged
into darkness and mourning as a result.

This story, as well as the story of the Last Supper, led to one of the
most entrenched 13-related beliefs: you should never sit down to a meal
in a group of 13.

As far as the Friday part in Norse mythology, "Friday" was
named after Frigg (or Frigga), the Norse goddess of marriage. Later she
was confused with the goddess of love, Freya, who in turn became identified
with Friday. When the Norsemen and Germanic tribes became Christians,
Freya was supposed to have been banished to the mountains as a witch.
Friday came to be called "witches' Sabbath." It was believed
that on this day, each week, twelve witches and the Devil met - thirteen
evil spirits in all.

Howstuffworks
had this to say:

Like many human beliefs, the fear of Friday the 13th
(known as paraskevidekatriaphobia) isn't exactly grounded in scientific
logic. But the really strange thing is that most of the people who believe
the day is unlucky offer no explanation at all, logical or illogical.
As with most superstitions, people fear Friday the 13th for its own sake,
without any need for background information.

Then, there is always the movie series Friday
the 13th
with the terrifying Jason to back up the belief
in bad luck on Friday the 13th (talk about understatement!). But that's
just Hollywood and, as usual, to be taken with a grain of salt or two.

So, what's a poor gamer to believe?

Welp, here's my recommendation…hang a horseshoe over your front
entrance, make sure the bottom of the U is pointing down (otherwise your
luck will all fall out). Find that old four-leaf clover you pressed into
a book and set it beside your computer. Find that rabbit's foot key chain
someone gave you and put it on the other side of your computer. Take a
pinch salt and throw it over your left shoulder (or is it your right shoulder?).
Before you play, knock on wood (no, not your head!) Don't forget that
lucky penny you found on the sidewalk downtown. Just tuck it in there
beside your four-leaf clover.

And, above all, the thing that will bring you the most bad luck—don't
be late for the raid.

Happy Friday the 13th!



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Karen is H.D.i.C. (Head Druid in Charge) at EQHammer. She likes chocolate chip pancakes, warm hugs, gaming so late that it's early, and rooting things and covering them with bees. Don't read her Ten Ton Hammer column every Tuesday. Or the EQHammer one every Thursday, either.

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