1. Today is the first of three Friday the 13th’s this year.
2. 13 is considered an unlucky number because Biblically, the number 12 is considered holy or lucky. And any immediate subsequent number (13) is therefore considered extremely unlucky.
3. Hotels and airplanes omit the ominous number during their construction. Which isn’t to say they don’t have an Aisle 13 or 13th Floor. You just know it as 14. So, wouldn’t that make 14 just as unfortunate?
4. 13 is the age that everyone can’t wait to turn. It signifies the ascent from childhood into young adulthood. Turning 13 doesn’t make a person an adult. It just makes them think they are.
5. The Aztec week was 13 days long, and there were 20 of them in one Aztec calendar year.
6. There are 13 Principles of Faith in Judaism.
7. A 13th wedding anniversary is celebrated with lace.
8. There were 13 colonies that became the first United States of America.
9. Famous people born on Friday the 13th include Butch Cassidy (1866), Alfred Hitchcock (1899), Samuel Beckett (1906), Christopher Plummer (1929), and Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen (1986).
10. Because people are more attentive to danger on Friday the 13th, accidents and thefts actually occur with less frequency than on regular, “casual” Fridays in which people just go about their business.
11. Sarah Winchester, heir to the Winchester Rifle fortune, believed she was haunted by the spirits of all those killed with a Winchester Rifle. She built a monstrous mansion in San Jose, CA and infiltrated it with “13”. The stairs have 13 steps. There are 13 bathrooms. Chandeliers hold 13 candles. And on every Friday the 13th, a bell at the house is rung 13 times at “13 o’clock” (1 p.m.).
12. Neptune has 13 known moons.
13. I checked 13 sources and websites to compile the information in this post.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!