Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck in English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking countries around the world, as well as in Germany, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece, Romania and Spanish-speaking countries, for example, it is Tuesday the 13th that is considered unlucky. In Italy it is Friday the 17th.
The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, , a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή) (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς) (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (φοβία) (meaning phobia). The term is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple phobia (fear) of the number thirteen appearing in any case.
