Q 01/05

The fear of Friday the 13th has a specific name. Which of these is it?

A) Paraskevidekatriaphobia

B) Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

C) Arachibutyrophobia

D) Nomophobia

Answer · why

A) Paraskevidekatriaphobia

It is also called friggatriskaidekaphobia, after Frigg, the Norse goddess Friday is named for; fear of the number 13 alone is triskaidekaphobia.

Q 02/05

One origin story for the superstition points to the mass arrest of which order on Friday the 13th, 1307?

A) The Jesuits

B) The Knights Hospitaller

C) The Teutonic Knights

D) The Knights Templar

Answer · why

D) The Knights Templar

King Philip IV of France, in debt to them, had Jacques de Molay and scores of Templars seized at dawn; de Molay was burned at the stake in 1314.

Q 03/05

Which pope formally dissolved the order arrested in 1307, at the Council of Vienne in 1312?

A) Clement V

B) Boniface VIII

C) John XXII

D) Benedict XI

Answer · why

A) Clement V

He did it at the Council of Vienne with the bull Vox in excelso; most Templar assets passed to the Hospitallers.

Q 04/05

Christian superstition holds that which disciple was the 13th to sit down at the Last Supper?

A) Peter

B) Judas

C) Thomas

D) Matthew

Answer · why

B) Judas

The Bible actually says nothing about the seating order, but the idea stuck.

Q 05/05

An early English reference to Friday the 13th appears in an 1869 biography of which composer, who died that day in 1868?

A) Hector Berlioz

B) Franz Schubert

C) Vincenzo Bellini

D) Gioachino Rossini

Answer · why

D) Gioachino Rossini

The composer of The Barber of Seville reportedly regarded both Fridays and the number 13 as unlucky.