Triskaidecaphobia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Control panel in the elevator of a high-rise building; there is no 13th floor

Triskaidekaphobia (from ancient Greek τρεισκαίδεκα treiskaídeka , 'thirteen' and ancient Greek φόβος fóbos , 'fear') is the superstitious fear of the number thirteen . If it is severe, especially if the person concerned avoids and circumvents everything that has to do with the number 13, one speaks of an isolated or specific phobia in the medical sense.

There is widespread fear of the calendar date Friday the 13th ; the phobic disorder related to this day is also called Paraskavedekatriaphobie (from Latin parasceuē or parascēves , from ancient Greek παρασκευή , German “Friday”). This can manifest itself in such a way that those affected cancel trips and appointments or do not even dare to get out of bed on a Friday, which falls on the thirteenth of the month. An analysis of sick leave from 2006 to 2008 showed that on such Fridays three to five times more employees are on sick leave than the average. At the same time, an analysis by Zurich Insurance shows that on Fridays that fall on the 13th of a month, significantly fewer claims are recorded than on all other Fridays in the year.

origin

Since some years must have 13 months according to the lunisolar calendar , the 13 was a sacred number for peoples who used such a calendar and was only later referred to as pagan, since the Gregorian solar calendar and the Islamic lunar calendar always count twelve months. For the Teutons, 13 was considered a lucky number: Twelve wise men went to sea to write the Lex Frisionum , a thirteenth man appeared in an upcoming storm, took over the helm, steered the ship through the storm and the twelve wise men finally the law of the Frisians dictated before disappearing again. For the Japanese, 13 is considered a lucky number. In Jewish tradition, thirteen is also a lucky number and a symbol of God because it is above twelve.

The day is also divided into twelve hours before noon and twelve hours after noon - which has less to do with avoiding the number 13 and more to do with the fact that the number twelve has so many factors. A bell clock therefore only strikes a maximum of twelve times. This is where the saying "now strikes 13" comes from for an unusual event.

Examples

Rows of seats in an airplane: The 12th row is followed by the 14th row.

In some high-rise buildings, the 13th floor is missing from the numbering, so that the 12th floor is directly followed by floor number 14. Similarly, the 13th deck is often skipped in the numbering of ships. The number 13 is also often missing in hotel rooms. Furthermore, most airlines do not have a 13th row in their aircraft. In Formula 1 , the number 13 was not used in the numbering of vehicles until 2013. Some first-generation ICE trains do not have a car 13. The Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, DC does not have a gate 13 in Terminal B. After tram line 12 of the former Magdeburg suburban railway , line 14 followed between Magdeburg and Schönebeck . The Weihenstephaner Bräustüberl in Freising is called "Lecture Hall 13" by students of the Technical University of Munich. On campus Freising-Weihenstephan officially no auditorium exists with the number thirteen.

The composer Arnold Schönberg was considered a well-known triskaidecaphobic .

Quatorzième ("the fourteenth") was a name for professional guests of private companies in the Paris of the fin de siècle , at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A quatorzième attended a society in appropriate clothing - with or without payment - in order to prevent 13 guests from sitting at a table (hence the name). In a French entertainment journal from 1870 - with reference to an obituary in a London newspaper - a John Andrew Malketh is mentioned by name, who left 500,000 francs after having worked as a quatorzième for 35 years.

In Germany, after the twelfth book of the social code, the fourteenth book of the social code was issued on December 12, 2019 . There should not be a thirteenth book of the Social Security Code .

See also

literature

  • Hermann Bausinger : Thirteen: a preliminary remark . In: Magic and Piety (Volksleben, Volume 13). Magstadt 1966, pp. 7-10 ( full text )

Web links

Wiktionary: Triskaidekaphobie  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Triskaidekaphobia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b On Friday the 13th, a noticeable number of people reported sick. Retrieved March 12, 2011 .
  2. Press release from the Fernuni Hagen, July 2008. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008 ; Retrieved March 17, 2011 .
  3. Don't panic: Friday the 13th is not an unlucky day ( memento from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), inserted Oct. 18, 2015
  4. Christoph Drösser: Right? Architecture and superstition . Retrieved October 15, 2017
  5. In Weihenstephan on the trail of a cultural asset . ( Memento from September 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Gießener Allgemeine
  6. ↑ Site plan (PDF) of the lecture halls on the Weihenstephan campus
  7. Georg Simmel: The big cities and the intellectual life . 1903
  8. Variété . In: L'Écho Français - Journal non-politique, 1870, No. 3, p. 23
  9. Weekly advertisements for the Principality of Ratzeburg, (1869) No. 51 (German version)
  10. Superstitious - Federal Minister Heil wants to do without the number 13 , Augsburger Allgemeine, January 15, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2019.