Life: Idiotropic

Friday, the thirteenth meant something when I lived in the states. Not necessarily to me, mind you, but being immersed in our American society, I was aware each Friday the 13th of it's "bad luck" qualities. Here, away from that culture almost entirely, those things don't even cross my mind. Today was just another day. I never stopped to think what the date was let alone clue into the correlations between that and the possible stubbornness of a horse.

While I don't speak German even remotely well, I do understand quite a bit especially basics like numbers and days, but when today, at horses, Tanja kept telling me that it was Freitag der dreizehn, I stood there with the clueless expression on my face until she got someone to translate it into English. I understood the words, but as she kept telling me over and over, I just couldn't make the connection between the date itself and any significance. She's German. I didn't realize they had that superstition here as well.

They do... just like us. I just looked up the day on Wikipedia and found out we're not alone in our superstitions. In English, German, Polish, and Portuguese speaking cultures, Friday the 13th is an ominous day. In Italy Friday the 13th is a lucky day and Friday the 17th is bad. In Greece and Spain, it's TUESDAY the 13th that is scary (tritidekatriaphobia).

By the way... paraskevidekatriaphobia is that $100 word meaning an irrational fear of Friday the 13th. Try to say that one 5 times fast.

Photos from our day which was not in the least bit unlucky except for the light mist this morning... 1) Misha decorated with fabric pieces by Elise for "the ballet" 2) All four girls on a merry-go-round that you operate yourself by pulling on the center immovable bar at one of our favorite ice cream place - Eis Paradies 3) These remarkable cement buckets of sorts that they use here to build walls, then they fill them with soil and plant flowers, so all of the sudden, you have a flowering wall on both sides. These are also at our favorite ice cream establishment.