Friday the 13th

 

Do you suffer from triskaidekaphobia? Not the fear of Tricuits, but rather the fear of Friday the 13th. If you do, you're not alone. An old National Geographic magazine article says that 17-21 Million Americans are scared of the day, costing $800-$900 Million dollars in revenue lost to businesses because people don't want to fly or even leave their homes. 

I'm a Friday the 13th skeptic, it's just another day on the calendar but some people really do get a superstition overload on this day. Some of them, good and bad, include: 

-If a black cat crossing your path, bad luck. Some would argue that anytime any colour cat crosses your path it's bad news... not me! Test your luck and adopt a black cat and see what happens. 

-Throwing salt over your shoulder at the dinner table is good luck, especially when you eat over a shuffleboard table. 

-Beaking a mirror bring Seven years of bad luck, you also run the risk of getting bloody feet if you step on a shard. 

 

13 is considered an unlucky number. Some hotels and apartment buildings skip the 13th floor, that one always confused me because the movie 1408 was the haunted room.... Did they skip floor Thirteen? If they did, the room would've then been on the 13th floor which would've been freakier. 

Speaking of movies, Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th made the goalie mask almost as popular as when Jacques Plante first threw one on. This was a go-to Halloween costume when I was younger, you didn't need to wear anything other than a Castlegar dinner jacket and a Jofa. 

Friday the 13th can't be all bad.

-Black Sabbath's first album came out in 1970 on a Friday the 13th. 

-Port Dover, Ontario hosts their 52nd annual biker rally today providing the small town of Port Dover with a host of ass-less chaps. 

-The Hollywood letters were bolted to the ground on a Friday the 13th, without that you wouldn't know which city you're in when having dinner on Hollywood Blvd. 

-Don't forget about Friday, February 13 in 1948.  USA's Dick Button winning the World Figure Skating Championship in Switzerland, that was huge for 13 figure skating fans. 

Do you buy into all the hoopla of Friday the 13th or just go about it as the day after Thurday the 12th?