Laingan.com

Friday the 13th is believed to be a bad luck day for the superstitious people. The superstition surrounding Friday the 13th is also believed to be a combination of two separate fears, ie. the fear of the number 13 and the fear of Fridays.

There is a very long and hard to spell or pronounce name given to the fear of Friday the 13th and this name is called paraskevidekatriaphobia. It is pronounced as “pair.uh.skee.vee.dek.uh.tree.uh.foh.bee.uh”.

In fact, paraskevidekatriaphobia is a term based on the Greek words :

Paraskevi — means Friday

Dekatria — means Thirteen

Phobia — indicates Fear

As for Fridays, they have been considered an unlucky day since the medieval times. Superstitious people consider it as bad luck to start anything on a Friday. Things like starting a new job, new journey, giving birth, moving house, marriage, business project and so on.

However, Friday the 13th is considered a lucky day for my family. Reason being that my mom had got a little windfall on Friday the 13th and won $500 SG by betting her luck on the Chap Ji Kee (12-digit lottery) in 1987.

She was so happy and bought us a pet dog from an aquarium shop when the shop owner had decided to sell away his pug dog. In the past, we used to rear fish, tortoise, chicken, guinea pig and rabbit but never had a dog before. You can tell how happy my mom was at that time to have had won the lottery on Friday the 13th.

Thirteen is pronounced as “Surp Sum” in Cantonese and it means “sure alive“. So, 13 is in fact a good and lucky number to our family. Coincidently, our pet dog was born on 13 Jan 1987. This chubby pug dog was so lovely and it brought a lot of happiness, fun and love to our family.

My mom was in deed very lucky to have won the lottery on the Friday the 13th and brought the pug dog home to shover us with lots of love. So, 13 is actually a lucky number.