By Aly Adair
Associated Content

Myths, legends, and folklore…where would Harry Potter be without them? I wonder if Harry suffers from paraskavedekatriaphobia. What is that?!? According to Dr. Donald Dossey, a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of phobias, and coiner of the term “paraskevidekatriaphobia”, it describes people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th - and according to Dossey, there are about 21 million of us in America. Roughly 8% of our population wants to stay in bed for fear of bad luck on Friday the 13th. Some sources say it may be the most widespread superstition in the United States. Some people won’t go to work on Friday the 13th; some won’t eat in restaurants; many wouldn’t think of setting a wedding on the date.

Why do we have a fear of Friday the 13th anyway? What started all of the devilish discussion about the freaky Friday, bad luck day? There is a history actually, and according to Jeannie Banks Thomas, director of the folklore program at Utah State University, these kinds of myths and legends were essentially created by one religion demonizing another. One story about Fridays is from as early as the sixth century. Christian missionaries from England traveled to Germany or Russia to stamp out other religions like the Norse goddess Frigg (or Freyja), goddess of sky, love, fertility, and motherhood. As Christianity gained popularity throughout Europe, missionaries demonized her and demoted her to a witch. But, there were some who still believed in the power of Frigg and wanted to remain as her followers. As the Christians continued to shun Frigg even more strongly, her followers started meeting secretly in caves to worship her. This only added to society fearing Frigg and the speculation is that followers gathered in the caves on Fridays. Later, her name was linked to the derivative of the word Friday, which became known as the day of worshiping the witch. The belief that Friday was an evil day followed.

Another story about Friday the 13th comes from the Christian tradition that the number 13 is unlucky. Dan Brown’s, The Da Vinci Code, made it popular to believe that Friday the 13th was the day the Knights Templar were arrested and killed by King Phillip IV. Other’s believe Friday the 13th is unlucky because Judas was the 13th person to attend the Last Supper and Christ was crucified on Friday shortly after the gathering. Some believe if you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil’s luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names).

read more at Associated Content