Will Friday the 13th Be Superstitious, Simply Super or Just Friday?

Friday the 13th is a wonder.  So, before you begin reading this blog post, I’ve got some wonderous atmospheric music for you to listen to while reading.  Click here for a wonderful YouTube experience.

Are you afraid of Friday the 13th?  Does the number 13 give you heebie jeebies?  If so, you are not alone.  There are a lot of people on the planet who get anxious about the number 13.  There are others who believe that number is spiritual and filled with blessings.  Some of these folks are famous.

Take Stephen King for example.  His imagination is so brilliantly charged, his work could frighten Friday the 13th into wishing it were Saturday the 14th or Friday’s older sister, Thursday the 12th.  King’s work is so excitingly frightening that black cats are ready to dye their fur blond just for that day.

But King apparently doesn’t like the number 13.  He reportedly doesn’t take any chances.  But he is the king of horror fiction.  Perhaps he knows something we don’t.

On the flip side of record, Taylor Swift sings praises for the number 13.  Here is an AARP article that explains King’s and Swift’s choices in the number 13.

My research indicates that Friday the 13th reminds people of tragedy.  Supposedly, the superstitious angle can be traced back to Norse mythology.  There was a god of mischief.  His name was Loki.  As legend tells it, he wasn’t invited to a fancy dinner party where 12 other mythological gods made up the party guests.  So, Loki crashed the bash.  Before the soiree ended, someone was killed.

Religion also gets into the act of Friday the 13th lore.  Some folks believe the famous last supper was unlucky for Jesus because 13 people attended, including a traitor named Judas.

In numerology the number 13 is associated with divinity.  The message of the number is to embrace 13 as it brings good luck and heavenly blessings.

I don’t know much about numerology except it may require math.  Looking back at my middle school math grades, when I was 13, maybe Friday the 13th was extremely unlucky.  But on number 13’s behalf, artists aren’t very good at math.

Number 13 in numerology is also about change.  Internet research reveals number 13 combines the energies of 1 and 3 to create a still different number.  I don’t get it.  I’m an artist.  Did I mention we’re bad at math?

If change is involved, life can go either way.  So can the outcome of Friday the 13th.  Just how unlucky is Friday the 13th?  That really does depend on mindset.  If you belief Friday the 13th is unlucky, it is.  If you believe otherwise, you’re also right.  Metaphysical experts insist that our experiences begin in our minds.  The vibrations of our thoughts and feelings orchestrate the outcome.

Psychologists do not deny that the number 13 and Friday the 13th cause serious problems for so many people the conditions became their own specific disorders.  The fear of Friday the 13th is known as triskaidekaphobia and the fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia. 

Now, you might be pondering how I know those are real disorders and not something the black cat typed while walking across the keyboard to go rinse out the blond hair dye.  I read it in Newsweek.

It has some serious symptoms that can get in the way of living life to the fullest.  It interferes with patients’ family lives, their social lives, and their jobs.  Some sufferers experience dizziness, nausea, palpitations, sweating, shortness of breath and tremors.  The symptoms are attached to a lot of anxiety and fear that interfere with patients’ abilities to function according to their regular norms.

Fear of anything can keep us stuck, causing us to push away opportunity.

If you are still reading this and you suffer from either paraskevidekatriaphobia or triskaidekaphobia, I believe you should listen to your therapist and listen to your heart.  In fact, I believe all of us should listen to our hearts.

As a comedy writer, I still must jest.  Quite frankly I believe everyone suffering from the phobias should unite, form a community and create change as a tribe.  I suggest the first thing you do is get medical professionals to change the names of your phobias.  In addition to having more dignity, they should each consist of 13 letters.  The current names are over-achievers.

If you don’t have one of these phobias, then I don’t want to scare you, but supporting the phobia name change movement is good karma.  What if therapists stopped charging by the hour and started collecting by the letter? 

I do like the idea of 13 being a lucky number.  I’m fond of some of the evidence.  I especially like the baker’s dozen, which consists of 13 cupcakes, cookies or cream puffs.  I believe such testimony is heavenly.  However, there is an argument that 13 in a baker’s dozen can present a problem.  To obtain physical balance, one needs 14 donuts for even distribution on the thighs.  You could keep it at 13, but to be fair, you would need to cut the 13th donut in half.  That requires geometry.  Geometry is math. 

Artists don’t do math.   It’s bad luck to have them try.