Every time the 13th day of a month falls on a Friday, people begin talking about paraskevidekatriaphobia. Difficult to pronounce, paraskevidekatriaphobia is a phobia of Friday the 13th.
Friday the 13th is considered a bad omen in several western cultures. It is believed that the number 13 is associated with Jesus’ crucifixion, with a Norse myth about how Loki, a 13th guest at a gods’ party, tricked and Hoor to shoot Balder with a mistletoe-tipped arrow, causing darkness on Earth and much more.
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Several negative events like Apollo 13’s oxygen tank explosion, the arrest of the Knights Templar was ordered by Philip IV of France, the Black Friday stock market crash and Southwest Airlines Flight 1380’s engine failure have been associated with the number 13.
Paraskevidekatriaphobia falls under the umbrella of a larger category of phobias – Triskaidekaphobia. Finding its origins in ancient Greece, Triskaidekaphobia means the fear of number 13.
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You would notice that many ships have omitted a number 13th deck. Instead, the decks are numbered up to 12 and skip straight to number 14. Hotels, buildings and elevator manufacturers have also avoided using the number 13 for rooms and floors based on triskaidekaphobia. The 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt had a fear of the number 13.
Roosevelt, whose “fireside chats” were moments in which he reassured and comforted and informed America, was afraid of fire. In No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin writes:
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American biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin in ‘No Ordinary Time’, commenting on his fear of 13, said, “Outside Roosevelt’s door, which he refused to lock at night as previous presidents had done, Secret Service men patrolled the corridor, alerting the guardroom to the slightest hint of movement. The refusal to lock his door was related to the president’s dread of fire, which surpassed his fear of assassination or anything else. The fear seems to have been rooted in his childhood, when, as a small boy, he had seen his young aunt, Laura, race down the stairs, screaming, her body and clothes aflame from an accident with an alcohol lamp.
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While the reasons for the phobia are many, here are a few symptoms as listed by Jacob Onsen of Fearof.net:
- Hyperventilation
- Rapid heart rate (that may increase fear of having a heart attack or dying)
- Nervous giggling
- Lightheadedness or dizziness
- Refusing to leave the home on this day. Finding excuses, crying, screaming, trying to flee etc.
- Indulging in ritualistic behavior- for example, hanging shoes outside the window to repel evil, or eating garlic, or walking around the room 13 times etc may be seen .
- Thoughts of death or dying might continually play through the phobic’s mind
