It's Friday the 13th ... Again

If Friday the 13^th gives you the willies, then 2009 has been a tough year. This year, February, March and November all featured the spooky date, an occurrence that only happens once every 11 years.

The folks at LiveScience posted a fascinating article about the oft-discussed date, and say its origins are somewhat unknown. It might go back 2009 years to Jesus and his pals at the Last Supper — it was the 13^th disciple who betrayed him, after all. Whatever the reason, by the Middle Ages the number 13 was considered numeral non grata, and that's pretty much been the case through today.

Ready for some other Friday the 13^th facts? Ready or not, here they come, courtesy of those fabulous LiveScience smartie-pants:

* Fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13. (We dare you to say those words three times fast.)

* Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor and some airline terminals omit Gate 13.

* President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

* Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest. (Seriously?!?)

* The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

OK, so Friday the 13th might have a bad rap. But it's really not that scary, right? Right??

Photo courtesy of W. J. Pilsak via Wikimedia Commons.