Since today is Friday the thirteenth, I’ll write about Friday the thirteenth and fear of the number 13 in general.

The long word in the title starting with “Paraskev. …” (Yay copy-paste!) is a less known phobia which is the fear of this date-day combination. But, what is the origin of this unlucky/scary day?

Rumor says it all started with the Knights Templar when Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of them on 13 October 1307, which was as you guessed: a Friday. Had he done this a day earlier, like Thursday the 12th, this date would have never become a popular date ( no Michael Myers) let alone a meaningless phobia. 13 is the key number here, the pure evil number that dates far back in history or fiction like the fable of the sleeping beauty where the thirteenth witch placed a curse on our heroine.

Some hotels in America still don’t have a room 13 and room 14 follows room 12. Perhaps the phobia is based on this number 13 being unlucky as how on earth the last working day of the week can be considered to be unlucky?

My thesis is supported by the fact that there’s a completely different phobia solely of number 13 which has a scientific name of its own: “triskaidekaphobia”.

Scroll down for a little test to see if you have “triskaidekaphobia”:

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