Did you know that the fear of Friday the 13th is called "paraskavedekatriaphobia?"
A word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή) (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς) (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (φοβία) (meaning fear)?
Now you do. Did you know that 17 million are affected? Neither did I.
This fear is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple phobia (fear) of the number thirteen, and is also known as friggatriskaidekaphobia.
The term triskaidekaphobia was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953.
Here some more fun facts:
1. It’s been estimated that $800 or $900 million (U.S.) is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they would normally do.
2. No historical date has been verifiably 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.
3. The first documented mention of a “Friday the 13th” is generally listed as occurring in the early 1900’s
4. 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.
5. Many people are so paralyzed by fear that they are simply unable to get out of bed when Friday the 13th rolls around. The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute estimates that more than 17 million people are affected by a fear of this day.
6. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia.
7. Every year has at least one, and at most three Fridays the 13th, with 48 occurrences in 28 years an average of 1.7 times per year. The reason, this is the evidence: twenty-eight years have 336 months and 336 also equals seven times forty-eight.
8. A study published in The British Medical Journal (1993) has shown that there is a significant increase in traffic-related accidents on Friday the 13ths.
9. Friday the 13th is also known as “Dooms day” all around the world.
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