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Friday, October 13, 2017

Friggatriskaidekaphobia

Friggatriskaidekaphobia: fear of Friday the Thirteenth. We’ve all heard of it. But why?

There are multiple theories on the origins of Friday the 13th as a day of bad luck. A common Christian belief is that it originates from the painting of the last supper, with Jesus and his 12 disciples. The day after the meal, a Friday, he was crucified. But fear of the number 13 may go back far earlier. Just as many hotels skip a floor 13, the ancient Code of Hammurabi skipped the number 13 when setting out its list of laws. In Western culture, 12 is often a number of completion: 12 apostles, 12 days of Christmas, 12 to a dozen, 12 dozen to a gross, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 shillings to a pound, and so on. So maybe the number after “completion” just meant messing things up. Odds are, we’ll never know for sure. (Pun intended)

As for adding Friday into the mix, the Bible is often pointed to again with the crucifixion and other bad stuff occurring or speculated to be occurring on Friday. Freya or Frigga, the goddesses referenced in the word Friday neither have any association with bad luck, so it wouldn’t come from there. If we had a Lokiday in the week, then we might have cause to believe the stories. Or, if the association came about later, the Knights Templar were disbanded (and generally sentenced to death) on Friday, 13 October, 1307, which was a pretty big deal at the time.

Superstition doesn’t need a reason, of course. It’s self-propagating. Over time, anything bad on a Friday the 13th was used to shore up the belief.  Sept. 13, 1940, Buckingham Palace was bombed, Nov. 13, 1970, a cyclone killed over 300,000 people in Bangladesh, a Chilean Air Force plane disappeared somewhere in the Andes mountains on Oct. 13, 1972, Tupac Shakur was shot on Dec. 13, 1996 and a cruise ship, the Costa Concordia crashed of Italy, killing 30 on Jan. 13, 2012. All of those were Fridays. Add in the fictional horrors, and you’ve got a pretty well-entrenched superstition.

While I’ve never written a book set around a Friday the 13th, (although now I may have to—it’s a great idea!) I have used a holiday that's also rife with superstition: Halloween, coming up later this month. My very first erotic romance story, formerly titled Between a Rock and a Hard-On, was set at Halloween 2007. In the spirit of the holiday, I’ve re-released it this month as an Amazon exclusive. I had so much fun writing this—I did it in one weekend, giggling maniacally the whole time. I hope you enjoy it too—it was also my first shifter dragon story. And you know I loves my dragons!

Best of luck on this Friday the 13th, and Blessed Samhain or Happy Halloween as you prefer!

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Between a Rock and a Hard Dragon

Story #1 in the Love Me Like a Rock collection.

What happens when you mix a half-dragon, a pixie and a little sex magic in a wooded park on Halloween? Neither Bram nor Twyla have any idea but when it all comes together the magic explodes in a frenzy of hot sex and sizzling romance.

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3 comments:

Paris said...

Hi Cindy!

Great post! I knew about the Knights Templar but had never reached beyond, and wondered about Friday the 13th, past that little fact. Thanks for all the info:)
I had no idea that Between a Rock and a Hard On was your very first erotic novel! It was such a fun read and made me a die-hard fan!

Cindy Spencer Pape said...

Aww, thanks, Paris!

jean hart stewart said...

Loved your post....thanks for an interesting column

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