Today’s your unlucky day

Are you feeling unlucky today?  You should – today’s Friday the 13th – a day often marked as an unlucky day.

No one is sure why Friday the 13th is an unlucky day – but there are many suggestions.   During the Middle Ages in England, convicts were executed on Friday.   The bad luck associated with 13 came from a Christian perspective that there were `13 people at the last supper – – and for at least two of them if was an unlucky gathering.

The fear of Friday the 13th is pervasive across our country and around the world.  Some cultures see other numbers as unlucky, but here in the United States most hotels have no 13th floor and who can forget Apollo 13.

As far as bad luck goes, some 10 percent of the American public believes that Friday the 13th is bad luck.   But a black cat draws 14 percent and walking under a ladder is 12 percent.   About 13 percent of Americans are superstitious.

Some researchers have found that there are 2 percent more accidents on Friday the 13th and that hospitalization increases on Friday.

But, not everything about Friday, or the 13th means bad luck.   There’s an old nursery rhyme that says “Friday’s child is loving and giving while Wednesday’s child is “full of woe”.

What about the number 13.  How can that be a bad number.   A baker’s dozen is 13 – an extra doughnut.

What about the 13 colonies which became the 13 states.   Thirteen is everywhere on the Seal of the United States. – -13 stars, 13 arrows and 13 olive branches.   To Americans 13 is a lucky number.

Will Roger’s once said, “Friday the 13th may not be exactly unlucky, but it hasn’t done us a great deal of good either.”

If you’re worried about Friday the 13th.   This is the only one on the 2017 calendar.  Some years there are as many as three.

Have a lucky day.