FRIDAY THE 13th SUPERSTITIONS:
The curses that surround Friday the 13th range from sailors and fishermen being wary of going out to sea to beliefs that hearing any piece of news on the day would add a wrinkle to your face.
In 1913, New York pastor Charles Reynolds even offered to marry couples for free, if they dared to challenge the superstitions.
An extreme superstition is that if you have 13 people who sit down to a meal together, all will die within a year.
Throughout history, many of the world’s most notorious killers have had exactly 13 letters in their names, such as Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy, and Charles Manson.
Throughout history, May 13th has seen Pope John Paul II shot and seriously wounded in Rome in 1981, Vice-President Richard Nixon attacked in Latin America in 1958, and Winston Churchill promising Parliament “to wage war, by sea, land and air with all our might and strength that God can give” in 1940.
Finally, in 1993, a study in the British Medical Journal concluded that the “risk of a transport accident on Friday the 13th may be increased by as much as 52% and that staying at home was recommended.”
(Source: Mail & Guardian Online)
FRIDAY THE 13th ODDITIES:
More than 80 percent of high-rises lack a 13th floor.
Many airports skip the 13th gate.
Some airplanes have no 13th row of seats.
Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13.
Italians omit the number 13 from their national lottery.
On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half.
Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue.
In France, socialites known as the quatorziens (fourteeners) once made themselves available as 14th guests to keep a dinner party from an unlucky fate.
If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil’s luck. Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy, and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names.
(Source: corsinet.com)
Pam Yates
