Making the most of Friday the 13th

Dean Poling, The Valdosta Daily Times, Ga.
·2 min read

Jan. 13—VALDOSTA — The superstitious will refuse to travel today, Friday the 13th.

Some will even argue it is bad luck to start anything on any given Friday, from a journey to a new job to marriage, business, giving birth, moving to a new house, etc.

If a person is afraid of Friday the 13th, they have good reason. There's a name for the fear of the number 13: triskaidekaphobia. The fear of Friday the 13th is known as paraskevidekatriaphobia ... if reading this aloud, you may well have a fear of trying to pronounce either of these phobias.

Thirteen has several superstitious connotations.

Jesus and the 12 disciples meeting at the Last Supper. Some argue that the crucifixion, Good Friday, fell on a Friday 13.

In Norse mythology, the mischievous Loki arrives to a banquet of a dozen Asgardian gods leading to Ragnarok — the twilight of the gods and the end of the world.

Numerology considers 12 to represent the whole: 12 months in a year, 12 hours on a clock, the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 apostles, the 12 descendants of Muhammed, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 characters of the Chinese calendar. It is the smallest number with six divisors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12. Twelve donuts. The 12 Days of Christmas. Cheaper by the Dozen.

So, adding one to 12 disrupts the completeness. Think of it as 12 is company, 13 is chaos.

If you don't believe 13 is an agent of chaos, just remember, for humans, the teenage years start with 13. Scared yet?

A few quickies: Thirteen turns complete the hangman's noose; 13 full moons in a year messed up ancient monks' calendars; 13 witches make a coven; those horrible "Friday the 13th" movies.

Still, as Americans, we don't consider the flag's 13 stripes unlucky, nor the 13 colonies. In Judaism, 13 represents the age a boy becomes a Bar Mitzvah, a full member of the faith, and the Torah speaks of God's 13 attributes of mercy.

In Italy, the expression "tridici" (13) is exclaimed when one's luck has changed for the better.

But maybe a number is simply what one makes of it. Same could be said of any given day. Today is what we make of it.