paraskavedekatriaphobia‏

On my way to work today I met up with one of my co workers. I asked him how his day was going so far. (It wasn’t even 8 am) He informed that he woke up feeling pretty good, he was happy that it was Friday and the end of the week. And then he went to make himself some coffee and he was all out. Thus began his Friday the 13^th.  I told him it was a bad sign that he should probably just head back home and stay there.

Five facts about Friday the 13^th.

1. Fear of Friday the 13th — one of the most popular myths in science — is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

2. Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor and some airline terminals omit Gate 13. (My sister, who works at IHC, said that they have a 13^th floor but they call it the 14^th floor. Same applies with the rooms.)

3. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

4. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.

5. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

Facts come from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29661652/