When Ashley Ocampo booked a flight for a conference this weekend in Tampa, she opted to leave today instead of Friday.
Ocampo doesn't walk under ladders or open umbrellas inside.
She also doesn't fly on Friday the 13th.
"I'm just a superstitious person," she said. "I don't tempt fate." Ocampo, a 38-year-old training coordinator for a local nonprofit agency, isn't alone. Fear of Friday the 13th is so common it has its own, hard-to-pronounce name: friggatriskaidekaphobia. Some people won't work on Friday the 13th. Others won't travel. Lots of tall buildings don't have buttons for the 13th floor in their elevators, including Highpoint Center on College Avenue.
The phobia is actually a sort of psychological collision of fears surrounding both Fridays and the number 13, which have been traced to pre-biblical times and cultures around the world, according to Bruce Bickley, professor emeritus at Florida State University. "And because we're a nation of immigrants, we brought those superstitions to our world," he said.
Tallahassee Democrat | 05/12/2005 | Friday the 13th awakens age-old superstitions
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