Thursday, June 12, 2014

FRIGGATRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA

A dark and stormy Friday
overlooking the Pali
No, this is not a game show cuss word, but the defining word for a person who, according to The Skeptic’s Dictionary (Skepdic.com) has a “morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th.” 

Everyone knows superstitious people consider Friday the 13th an unlucky day. Several stories or ‘old wives tales’ describe the reason behind the superstition of Friday the 13th. Not everyone is superstitious, though. You may enjoy a good campfire story, as long as it doesn’t scare you half to death (Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs rather than Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street or Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th.) 

A favorite legend is one that tells of Friday, October 13, 1307. On this day and date, King Philip IV ordered many Knights Templars simultaneously arrested and tortured. For authentication of this tale (said tongue-in-cheek) see The Da Vinci Code, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, or National Treasure.) Friday the 13th definitely proved an unlucky day for knights in France and Italy. Knights in other locales escaped torture and worse, saved by rulers influenced more by Templars’ good deeds than by Rome’s edicts. 

The collection of stories within the anthology, MYSTERY IN PARADISE 13 Tales of Suspense, contain tales that range from eerie to humorous to, as the book’s editor describes one story, “Hawaiian Gothic.” Enjoy your Friday the 13th weekend with 13 entertaining mysteries. Nothing of a superstitious nature lies between the pages, only murder suspects and red herrings. 
 
 

 
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