Did you know?

Are you superstitious? Do you avoid going under ladders? Do you throw salt over your shoulder? Do you believe that if you break a mirror you will have 7 years of bad luck? What about Friday 13? 

Very little is known about the origins of the day's notoriety. Some historians believe that the superstitions surrounding it arose in the late 19th century. The first documented mention of the day can be found in a biography of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, who died on a Friday 13th. A 1907 book, Friday the Thirteenth, by American businessman Thomas Lawson, may have further perpetuated the superstition. Others believe that the myth has Biblical origins. Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and there were 13 guests at the Last Supper the night before his crucifixion. Another account suggests that the day has been associated with misfortune since 1307 when on a Friday the 13th, the French king gave the orders to arrest hundreds of Knights Templar.

• Yet, the Fear is Very Real... The fear of Friday the 13th is also called friggatriskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia. Experts say that friggatriskaidekaphobia affects millions of people and estimate that businesses, especially airlines, suffer from severe losses on Friday the 13th.

• Triskaidekaphobia, or the fear of the number 13, is even more widespread. So much so that many high-rise buildings, hotels, and hospitals skip the 13th floor and many airports do not have gates numbered 13. In many parts of the world, having 13 people at the dinner table is considered bad luck.

• Alfred Hitchcock was born on the 13th. The master of suspense was born on August 13, 1899 – so Friday, August 13, 1999 would have been his 100th birthday. He made his directorial debut in 1922 with a movie called Number 13. Unfortunately, the film was doomed from the start and never got off the ground due to financial troubles. Other celebrities and well-known personalities born on a Friday the 13th include actors Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen; novelist and playwright, Samuel Beckett; and former President of Cuba, Fidel Castro. The Day Inspired One of the Highest Grossing Film Series

• The commercially successful Friday the 13th enterprise includes 12 horror movies, a television series, and several books that focus on curses and superstitions. Even though the films and the television series consistently received negative reviews from critics, they have a huge following. The mask worn by the key character in the films, Jason Voorhees, is one of the most known images in popular culture.

You can read more info here. 

• Taylor Swift thinks of 13 as her lucky number and has some connections with Friday the 13th: "I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. My first #1 song had a 13-second intro," she told MTV in 2009.

• Stephen King’s triskaidekaphobia – The number 13 and Friday the 13th in particular, scares even the horror master himself. He wrote an article about it for the New York Times in 1984 and you can read it here.

• Mark Twain was allegedly once invited to be the 13th guest at a dinner party. As the story goes, he went to the dinner despite a superstitious friend's warning. Twain reportedly said, "It was bad luck. They only had food for 12."

• In his No. 1 hit song "Superstition," Stevie Wonder sings: "Thirteen-month-old baby, broke the lookin' glass. Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past. When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain't the way."

• In some Spanish-speaking countries, Tuesday (Martes) the 13th is considered bad luck. Tuesday is feared because it is the day of the week associated with the Roman god of war, Mars. There is a cautionary saying: "On Tuesdays, don't get married, don't take a trip and don't leave your home."

• Founded in 1882 by Capt. William Fowler, The Thirteen Club of New York was a group of skeptics who defied superstitions by hosting dinner parties on Friday the 13th. At the first dinner, the 13 members performed such unlucky feats as passing under a ladder. They dined on 13 courses, the first by the light of 13 candles. The devil-may-care group tipped over salt containers on the table but were forbidden from tossing any of the spilled granules over their shoulders. The small club evolved into a national organization that boasted such members Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt, according to the New York Historical Society.

You can read more here.

• In some countries, Tuesday the 13th is the unlucky day, not Friday the 13th.  In Spain and Spanish speaking countries, it's Tuesday the 13th that gets people wound up. Martes, Tuesday in Spanish, comes from the Roman god of war, Mars, forever tying the day to violence, death and bloodshed. In conjunction, Constantinople supposedly fell on a Tuesday during the Fourth Crusade. And then Ottoman Turks supposedly claimed the city on a Tuesday more than 200 years later.

 Please follow this link to read more about superstitions: 13 Superstitions From Around the World

Hi @lulu13 so then good things happen on the 13th. You were born! It's weird how these superstitions started way back when and they are still carried over into today's world. I remember for the longest time throwing salt over my shoulder until I thought "why am I dong this?" So what do you think might happen if you didn't set the 14th place setting? It is hard to break those habits and superstitions. Thanks for sharing.

I remember as a child not wanting to cross paths with a black cat. My biggest one was not to step on a crack on the cement sidewalk. I think they called it "step on a crack and break your mother's back". I just checked it out on Google and here is what one article says.

"A little girl skips down a sidewalk, holding hands with her best friend. Together, they sing while strategically placing their footfalls. "Step on a crack and break your mother's back," goes the tune, a harmless little rhyme whose dark origin seems ill-matched with the bright game it has become.

Like these children, many people avoid stepping on cracks, whether they appear in soil or sidewalks. There's no definitive source of the first instance of this avoidance, but there is evidence that the practice dates to some of the earliest folk beliefs shared by early Europeans and Americans. The basic idea was that cracks were not something to trifle with because danger lurked in these empty spaces. Cracks in sidewalks, floors and soil, as well as in walls, signaled gaps in the boundaries between the earthly realm and the metaphysical realm. Interact with these chasms, no matter how narrow, and it could bring misfortune to you or your family."

Here is more from this article.

"A poll of 3,000 respondents in Great Britain found that one in 20 wouldn't step on cracks in pavement, even though they didn't really think they'd face real-life consequences if they did. Because of long-held superstitious beliefs -- some we don't even fully understand the meanings of -- we think four-leaf clovers are lucky or black cats are bad luck, and that stepping on a crack causes harm."

Isn't it amazing how these superstitions start and what it does to our brain? And they did research on this!