Lizard! Lizard! (*)

I learned a new word today: paraskavedekatriaphobia. It derives from a concatenation of the Greek words Παρασκευή, δεκατρείς, and φοβία, meaning Friday, thirteen, and phobia respectively. It is quite a pedantic way to refer to the fear of Friday the 13th.

A Friday occurring on the thirteenth day of any month is considered to be a day of bad luck. But not everywhere, just in English, German, Polish and Portuguese-speaking countries. In Spain (in Greece too) it is Tuesday the 13th, and not Friday, who takes this role. There is even a Spanish saying about it: "Martes y trece, ni te cases ni te embarques" ("Tuesday the 13th, neither marry nor embark"), which is quite stupid, because it doesn't even rhyme!

I read today that this superstitious belief is not really old. In fact, the first written references are as recent as 1950. Or, at least, that's the point of GWUP, Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften e.V., Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parascience (I'm sorry, it's only in German!, but here there is something about it as well). And that might be an explanation why Spain is (once again) different. In 1950 Spain was already under Franco's dictatorship, and especially on its first half (until the 70's), there was a strong tendency to isolation from the rest of the world. Which could well had affected these kind of fairy tales as well.

How was this Friday the 13th for you?

^(*) "Lagarto! Lagarto!" (Lizard! Lizard!) is a typical Spanish spell to scare evil spirits away.