We should be lucky the temperature isn’t supposed to dip to -13 C today. I mean, really, we Okanaganites have had enoughof the frigid temperatures this week, right (though I have lived in a pair of B.C. communities where the temps dropped to-40 and lower for about a week, so this past week was nothing)?
Seriously, though, -13 on Friday the 13th?
For some – myself included – it’s just not apropos to use lucky and Friday the 13th in the same sentence, unless you addthe letters ‘U-N’ in front of lucky.
Yes, I’m superstitious. Yes, I am extra careful on this day whenever it happens.
It’s payday today (for me). I hold my wallet extra close on this day for fear of losing it, misplacing it, or having it taken fromme. I take extra care in getting to the bank because I don’t want anything happening to me. I shouldn’t even go inside thebank today because, with my luck, my ATM card would get lost or stuck or jammed in the machine.
I try to take back roads to and from work to avoid traffic and getting into a fender-bender.
Lots of hotels, skyscraper apartments and hospitals skip the 13th floor. Airports are missing Gate 13. I once texted a frienda bunch of interesting facts in numeric order and omitted the No. 13. I’d call it Fact 12+1. Or 11+2. Then back to back tofact No. 14, No. 15, etc.
The one year I decided it would be cool to wear No. 13 playing baseball, I had the worst year ever. Injuries. A battingaverage near the legendary Mendoza line (named after weak-hitting former Major League Baseball shortstop MarioMendoza, said to be .200 which is two hits in 10 at-bats). I never wore the number again.
According to timeandcalendar.com, “there is very little evidence to show that Friday the 13th is indeed an unlucky day.Many studies have shown that Friday the 13th has little or no effect on events like accidents, hospital visits, and naturaldisasters.”
Tell that to Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (I know, I don’t know his music, either). He died on Friday the 13th in thelate 1800s, according to the website, and some believe the Friday the 13th tradition started with Gio (what his friends calledhim).
There was a book published in 1907 called Friday the Thirteeth. Some believe the tradition starts there. Some think it datesback to the Bible with Jesus being crucified and there were, as you know, 13 guests at the Last Supper the night before.
I suppose it’s silly to be scared of a number, though the fear is real for many.
If you suffer from a fear of the number 13 – and you are not alone – you suffer from triskaidekaphobia.
But…if you suffer from a fear of Friday the 13th, you’ve got the aptly named friggatriskaidekaiphobia, which comes fromFrigg, the Norse goddess of wisdom after whom Friday is named.
That’s my luck, a fear of Friday the 13th.
Frigg.
There is one more Friday the 13th in 2017, and it’s four days before my 54th birthday in October (54 divided by 4 = 13.5.Coincidence?).
It might even be minus 13 C on Oct. 13 (By the way, there are – wait for it – 13 letters in ‘minus thirteen’).
I can’t wait for Saturday the 14th.