Aug 13, 2021

Triskaidekaphobia

13 Quilts 


For those that suffer from "triskaidekaphobia", the fear of the number 13, or friggatriskaidekaphobia which is a morbid and irrational fear of Friday the 13th, you'd best beware of all of the other ill omens and myths surrounding this day of great portent of impending doom.

Friday is Frigga's Day (Frigg, or Frigga) was an ancient Scandinavian fertility and love goddess (equivalent to the Roman Venus) who had been worshiped on the sixth day of the week. 

Early Christians believed that Frigga was a witch and any Friday was the witches' Sabbath. For them, Friday the 13th was neither silly nor a joke. For them, it was a day that caused anxiety, if not outright terror. 

The origin of the association of this day as being a day of bad luck , like most mythological symbology, has altered with time. But common Biblical beliefs link it to a variety of symbols.

Biblical referencing most commonly link it to Friday, the day of Jesus the Christ's crucifixion, the beginning of the Great Flood, Eves' offering of the apple to Adam, the day that Noah faced the Great Flood, or the Last Supper, at which Judas Iscariot was said to have been the 13th guest to sit down at the table. Judas later betrayed Jesus, leading to Jesus' crucifixion. Everything was connected in their belief systems and took the form of fears and continuing superstitions.

This led to the fear of having 13 guests at a dinner table as superstition foretold that one of them would die within the year. This also led to the belief that the first person to rise from the table, or the last one to be seated, was an ill omen and created the concept of all waiting to be seated at the same time, standing up at the same time, or breaking groups into smaller tables to avoid the seating of 13. 

Eventually, by the late 19th century, people went out of their way to avoid anything associated with the number 13--whether it was hotel rooms, desks, cars, floors of a building, rungs of a ladder, or steps on the stairs. These 'ill omens' led to the avoidance of even using these numbers in many places, and led to the renumbering (without the number 12) of hotel rooms, floors and so forth. 

Other fear of Friday or Friday the 13th beliefs include:

  • Needleworking: "I knew an old lady who, if she had nearly completed a piece of needlework on a Thursday, would put it aside unfinished, and set a few stitches in her next undertaking that she might not be obliged either to begin the new task on Friday or that she should remain idle on that date (1883).
  • Giving Birth: "A child born on Friday is doomed to misfortune." (1846)
  • Getting Married: "As to Friday, a couple married on that day are doomed to a cat-and-dog life." (1879)

  • Recovering from Illness: "If you have been ill, don't get up for the first time on Friday." (1923)

  • Moving: "Don't move on a Friday, or you won't stay there very long." (1982)

  • Starting a New Job: "Servants who go into their situations on Friday, never go to stay."(1923) And my favorite: 

  • Hearing News: "If you hear anything on a Friday, it gives you another wrinkle on your face, and adds a year to your age." (1883)


Michele Bilyeu posted this on Friday the 13th and had to redone more than 7 times to get it to connect...I'm just saying. 🤔🤐😒🤯 But at least it wasn't 13!!!!






  Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands as she shares her imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon.


7 comments:

Lynne said...

What an amazing and interesting post, Michele. Thank you.

Wendy said...

Okay, so I was born on a Friday the 13th. Never had a bad one. All good luck for me.

Anonymous said...

Interesting post! Erm, we got married on a friday. Eek!

Clare said...

Erm. Friends moved on a Friday and my sister's birthday is 13 January, i.e today!

I didn't believe until I broke my ankle on Friday, 13 May 2011. I stayed inside today!

xxxx

The Selvage Fairy said...

Throughout the 12th and 13th century, the knights templar were a huge power in Europe, protecting pilgrims going to the Holy Land, and inventing international banking along the way.
But they got too rich, and the king of France owed them money, and grew jealous. He had them declared heretics, and devil worshipers which made it legal to kill them. So on Friday, the 13th of October 1307, all of the templar house across France were attacked at once.
Many knights were tortured and killed, but no one ever found their treasure.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, I might be superstitious after all. LOL

Josie McRazie said...

I live on 13th Ave and EVERY room in my house is something x13!! Really no joke!! I guess I have to live with the number EVERY day! (my Mother however was VERY against the #13!!)