Can you say Paraskevidekatriaphobia?

Anibal Ortiz / Roundup

Lock the doors! Close your windows! Friday the 13th is back for a rematch in the second part to the back-to-back thriller of the year. No, the masked character of Jason Voorhees will not jump out of this page to rip you to pieces. Rather, for the second-straight month this year the thirteenth day will fall on a Friday — this Friday, to be exact.

“It can be disabling,” said Edward R. Mazeika, chairman of the Pierce College psychology department. “I think for most of us we’re just kind of aware of it, we get just a little tinge of anxiety and we get over it.”

Mazeika explained that not only do people avoid the day, but some people avoid the number in general.  

“There are some people where it actually becomes a full-blown phobia where anything related to 13 creates major anxiety and they will go out of their way in an irrational way to avoid anything related to 13,” Mazeika said.

According to Mazeika, Triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13, combined with the fear of Friday creates Paraskevidekatriaphobia, the fear of Friday the 13th.  

“Before the 19th century,” explains anthropology faculty adviser Noble Eisenlauer, “it wasn’t superstitious.

“In his 1869 Biography, Gioachino Rossini was the first to publicly declare Friday the 13th as a bad day,” Eisenlauer said. “Ironically, he died on Friday the 13th, Nov. (1868).”

Eisenlauer explains that “Friday” was named after Frigga, a Norse Pagan goddess. Labeled a witch, Frigga was said to have gathered with 11 other witches and the devil on what came to be known as the “Witches’ Sabbath.”

“Thirteen by itself is looked at as unlucky, something to be avoided,” Mazeika said. “The connotation is something evil, something bad…for example, (in) the city of Santa Monica they have a 15th Street, a 14th Street and then they have Euclid Street, then they have 12th street. So they totally avoid 13.”

Mazeika included that “Many, though not all, buildings avoid a 13 floor. They might call it 12-A or something.

“A lot of people see the number 12 as a number of completeness. Twelve months, 12 hours in a day. Thirteen is an irregular number,” he said.

Mazeika explains that a phobic can be any type of person, be they intelligent, wealthy or poor.

“A phobia is an irrational fear of a stimulus which is not dangerous or where the danger is magnified out of proportion,” he said. “In this case the stimulus, the number 13—there is nothing dangerous about it, but yet some people attribute something awful to it.”

Mazeika said people who avoid doing anything on Friday the 13 create a pattern.

“They avoid (doing anything) and then nothing bad happens. So what happens? Their avoiding it gets rewarded. (In turn) they avoid it again,” he said.

Matthew Arnold, an 18-year-old computer science major, talked about his grandfather’s fear of the day.

“He’s a big believer of Friday the 13th. He’s very careful with everything he does,” Arnold said.

Another student gave Friday the 13th a little bit of credit.

“I think there is a slight chance more than any other day that something bad may happen that day,” said Jeff Torres, a 19-year-old business major.

However, most people toy with the idea of an unlucky day.

“I just play around with it,” said Marina Raya, a 19-year-old wildlife biology major. “Just say, ‘Oh wow. It’s Friday the 13. I better be careful.'”

Mazeika says some people may use the day as an excuse to not place blame on themselves.

“Part of it, I think, is that people attempt to control things in their life that they don’t have control over. There’s what we call an illusion of control, with the idea that if something bad happens on Friday the 13th, it’s because of that particular day,” he said.

Mazeika believes the phobia is losing its impact on some people.

“I don’t know if it’s as profound as it was years ago because you notice a lot of athletes (who) proudly wear 13,” he said.

anibalortiz.roundupnews@gmail.com

Photo Illustration (Gerard Walsh / Roundup)

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