02.13.09
Fearful Figures
FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING
If you haven’t noticed … today is Friday the Thirteenth.
Now I don’t have much problem with the day-date combination … and it’s even rare enough to qualify as spooky. For instance the combination will happen three times this year.
Still, it’s part of our culture to recognize something ominous about it.
How did this happen?
Let’s go way back, to Good Friday. Tradition has that Jesus of Nazareth was put to death on a Friday. The scriptural account of his death that day is heart-breaking, and succeeds in giving the day a bleakness that’s hard to escape. For many of us, we grew up attending public schools where every Friday, fish was served. I just figured it was fish day everywhere.
Then I learned that a Catholic tradition is to eat fish on Friday, a small act of penance to commemorate the death of Jesus. These days we continue this tradition by fasting on Good Friday. Fasting was incorporated into early Christian practice, as it was a familiar part of worship for Jews, from where all Christians come. Thus, a natural step for us to also adopt fasting.
So despite everyone’s clamoring for Friday, it has a somber reputation.
Combine the day with the number … 13 … a witches number in jest … yet one with rich cultural traditions around the world. Some believe it may stem from our lunar year’s having 12 months … which implies a 13th month lurking out there like a bad dream.
Triskaidekaphobia is a fear of the number 13.
Fear of Friday the Thirteenth is called paraskavedekatriaphobia.
Now what’s really fascinating are the ways our culture recognizes these fears … most of us would laugh and say, Ah, there’s nothing to that.
Yet tall buildings routinely omit the 13th floor. Just check next time you’re in an elevator.
And horse races also give a nod of the jockey’s cap to this superstition … at Santa Anita track in California, there is no 13th stall.
For us word people, numbers are a little frightening anyway, so maybe we won’t venture beyond the walls of Fiction Dailyland until after 1 p.m. … that’s 13:00 hours if you’re counting.
NEXT WEEK: Fiction Daily returns with more adventures in tap dancing, writing, karma and letters of the alphabet!
