Friday the Thirteenth: It it Real or Fake? Find Out The Origins and Percentages of This Rare Day!
Hi! This is Alexis, and yesterday was Friday the 13th. Ooh...scary. I like this font because it seems kinda spooky...
Sorry that it took so long to fix the type, our Internet went down (gasp!) so I didn't get much chance.
Unfortunately, Emmett's 5th birthday party was on that day, although it wasn't that unlucky. At the end of the party (it was at Chuck E Cheese) I had 180 tickets, and my friends had 360 and 480! Valeria got huge plastic sunglasses for 400 tickets, and Mary Kate just got a bunch of candy.
But I digress. I'm here to tell you a bit about Friday the 13th. The fear of the number thirteen is triskaidekaphobia, pronounced TRIS-kye-DEK-ah-FOH-bee-ah, and the fear of Friday the Thirteenth is called paraskevidekatriaphobia, pronounced para-skev-EE-dek-a-tri-a-FOH-bee-ah. Supposedly if you say this tongue-twisting word, you will be cured of any Friday the thirteenth fears you have.
The Friday the thirteenth superstition started from several sources. A biography of Gioachino Rossini suggested Friday the thirteenth was an unlucky day because that was when he died: He [Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring friends; and if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Fridays as an unlucky day and thirteen as an unlucky number, it was remarkable that on Friday 13th of November he passed away.
Another source was from The Last Supper. There were 13 people present, and the next day was when Jesus died on the cross, although there is no evidence of the two being together until many years afterward.
An interesting fact about Friday the thirteenth is that the thought of the day being unlucky is the only unluckiness you'll get! In Spanish speaking countries, the unlucky day is Tuesday the thirteenth, and in Italy, it's Friday the 17th. Italy thinks this way because if you translate 17 to Roman numerals, XVII, and move around the letters, you can get VIXI, which means "I have lived," implying death. Italy actually thinks of 13 as a lucky number!
Surprisingly, many people suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia! (fear of Friday the thirteenth, remember?) An estimated US 800-900 million dollars are lost because they are too fearful to go to work or even get out of bed---thinking there will be a car accident, an unexpected nuclear bomb, or an alien abduction. No, I'm being serious! Those are the top three most common fears on Friday the thirteenth!
Although Friday the thirteenth is awful for most people, it's blossoming in businesses. There are movies, shows, video games, and apps for this popular day. This increases the fear---everyone is more cautious! On most Fridays, there are an estimated 7800 car accidents, but on the thirteenth, there is an average of only 7500! Maybe we should have more Friday the thirteenths!
Most people don't believe this, but unluckiness is only in the head! People tend to mess up more often whenever something "unlucky" happens, like walking under a ladder, having a black cat cross your path, breaking a mirror, opening an umbrella indoors, and spilling salt all make people a little more clumsy during the day, nothing related to the thing they had done earlier, just them thinking it is!
So if yesterday you broke your mom's heirloom vase or forgot the cheese in the mac-n-cheese, just blame the "unlucky" day!
Bye!
Alexis
P.S: I love this quote!
Sorry that it took so long to fix the type, our Internet went down (gasp!) so I didn't get much chance.
Unfortunately, Emmett's 5th birthday party was on that day, although it wasn't that unlucky. At the end of the party (it was at Chuck E Cheese) I had 180 tickets, and my friends had 360 and 480! Valeria got huge plastic sunglasses for 400 tickets, and Mary Kate just got a bunch of candy.
But I digress. I'm here to tell you a bit about Friday the 13th. The fear of the number thirteen is triskaidekaphobia, pronounced TRIS-kye-DEK-ah-FOH-bee-ah, and the fear of Friday the Thirteenth is called paraskevidekatriaphobia, pronounced para-skev-EE-dek-a-tri-a-FOH-bee-ah. Supposedly if you say this tongue-twisting word, you will be cured of any Friday the thirteenth fears you have.
The Friday the thirteenth superstition started from several sources. A biography of Gioachino Rossini suggested Friday the thirteenth was an unlucky day because that was when he died: He [Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring friends; and if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Fridays as an unlucky day and thirteen as an unlucky number, it was remarkable that on Friday 13th of November he passed away.
Another source was from The Last Supper. There were 13 people present, and the next day was when Jesus died on the cross, although there is no evidence of the two being together until many years afterward.
An interesting fact about Friday the thirteenth is that the thought of the day being unlucky is the only unluckiness you'll get! In Spanish speaking countries, the unlucky day is Tuesday the thirteenth, and in Italy, it's Friday the 17th. Italy thinks this way because if you translate 17 to Roman numerals, XVII, and move around the letters, you can get VIXI, which means "I have lived," implying death. Italy actually thinks of 13 as a lucky number!
Surprisingly, many people suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia! (fear of Friday the thirteenth, remember?) An estimated US 800-900 million dollars are lost because they are too fearful to go to work or even get out of bed---thinking there will be a car accident, an unexpected nuclear bomb, or an alien abduction. No, I'm being serious! Those are the top three most common fears on Friday the thirteenth!
Although Friday the thirteenth is awful for most people, it's blossoming in businesses. There are movies, shows, video games, and apps for this popular day. This increases the fear---everyone is more cautious! On most Fridays, there are an estimated 7800 car accidents, but on the thirteenth, there is an average of only 7500! Maybe we should have more Friday the thirteenths!
Most people don't believe this, but unluckiness is only in the head! People tend to mess up more often whenever something "unlucky" happens, like walking under a ladder, having a black cat cross your path, breaking a mirror, opening an umbrella indoors, and spilling salt all make people a little more clumsy during the day, nothing related to the thing they had done earlier, just them thinking it is!
So if yesterday you broke your mom's heirloom vase or forgot the cheese in the mac-n-cheese, just blame the "unlucky" day!
Bye!
Alexis
P.S: I love this quote!
