Friday the 13th is a day that seems to promise bad luck – but on the upside, it only happens once this year.
And there is no evidence linking Friday the 13th to bad luck, says John Percy, a University of Toronto astronomy and astrophysics professor. “It’s strictly a superstition,” Percy said.
Fears about Friday the 13th stem from early Christianity, said Dena Taylor, a U of T occult expert. “Friday was the day on which Christ was crucified. … Judas was considered the 13th person at the table (of the Last Supper) and he, of course, is the betrayer,” Taylor said.
Taylor said 13 was linked with evil by Christians in the Middle Ages in the belief that witches met in covens of 13.
But the day does have value beyond superstitious hocus-pocus, it allows people one day to accept their fears.
It’s a day that’s dedicated to people’s anxiety about safety, anxiety about things working out for them, anxiety about a bad thing happening to either themselves or to somebody in their family.
The next one falls in January 2006. Still…I’m wearing a garlic necklace, tossing salt over my shoulder, and masturbating on the beach (okay, that’s just for my own peace of mind…and I’ll only do it if I can get away with it unnoticed…at least unnoticed by most people…. it’s just that I’m trying to address my fear of masturbating on the beach….;)