"Fear of Friday the 13th." Frigga is the name of the Norse goddess for whom Friday is named. (Oh, you didn't know our days of the week and months of the year were named after pagans?)
Triskaideka is a conflation of the Greek words for Friday and 13. The "phobia" part is, of course, fear.
"Frigga-tris-kai-dek-a-phobia" afflicts about 20 million citizens in the USA.
John,
You always teach me something new. I knew about Woden and Wednesday, but I didn't know they were all pagan! Shouldn't the fundamentalist right be alerted to this so that they can come up with new names?
Posted by: lillianjane | January 13, 2012 at 12:05 PM
I'd have to stop and think about "all." Let's see: Woden for Wednesday, Thor for Thursday, Freya (or Frigga) for Friday.
Then it switches to heavenly bodies--Saturn for Saturday, Sun for Sunday, Moon for Monday, then Tiwesdaeg--in Rome, Mars, the god of war--for Tuesday. (I used to think Tuesday was named for Zeus, but it doesn't.)
Months of the year vary--Janus and Mars were pagan gods, but July was named for Julius Caesar, August for Caesar Augustus.
Posted by: John Petty | January 15, 2012 at 07:24 AM