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Monday, May 4, 2009

Thirteen and Triskaidekaphobia

As I was trying out some new backgrounds I have been working on, I realized that each month I have posted Thirteen times... I'm not doing it on purpose and yet for three months somehow thirteen seems to the be lucky number...

Did you know that.....

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of 13, a number commonly associated with bad luck in Western culture.... While fear of the number 13 can be traced back to medieval times; the word triskaidekaphobia itself is of recent vintage, having been first coined by Coriat...

Fear of the number 13 also leads to fear of Friday the thirteenth; which has only recently been named paraskevidekatriphobia...

All interesting, I know, but how many of you actually realize that many religious people also have a fear of the number 13... Why? Well...

For Christians, the number thirteen brought bad luck... The superstition stems from the Last Supper where Judas Iscariot became the thirteenth guest to sit at the table and would later betray Jesus, leading to his crucifixion.... Still to this day it is considered very bad luck for thirteen people to sit down for dinner together.... It is believed that one of the dinner guests will die within the year.... (do people really believe this?)

Where am I going with this and DANG I wish I could post this on a Friday the 13th but that isn't for another hmmmm (trying to do math in head) errr November I think.... I digress... Where I was going is I actually LIKE the number thirteen and think that it is good luck... Thankfully so does DH... Apparently, I'm not alone in thinking the number 13 is lucky...

The Egyptians were the first to develop a superstition for the number thirteen, but for them the number brought good luck.... They believed that there were twelve steps on the ladder to eternal life and knowledge and to take the thirteenth step meant going through death into everlasting life.... Thirteen, for the Egyptians, was associated with immortality....

"There is no luck except where there is discipline." Irish Proverb

2 comments:

  1. That's very interesting. I'm not superstitious but I can see how some people could develop a fear of the number 13.

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  2. That is fascinating! I love learning new words. Wonder if I can remember that? Triskaidekaphobia! Next comes the tricky part... working it into conversations! LOL!

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