Friday the 13th: scary day or just another friday?

I was already about half way through Friday 13th Part 4 when I read a post on social media mentioning that it is Friday 13th November today. I should probably pay a little more attention to the calendar!



Seeing that got me thinking about superstitions, where we have them from and why we get them so stuck in our brains and lives. There are those common to particular cultures, such as it being bad luck to walk under ladders and - when I was growing up - black cats were lucky. Apparently we have now taken on the American version and they are considered unlucky. I like the version I grew up with better.



But many of us also have own little rituals and superstitions that are particular to us. For instance, I have a gold pentacle that was bought specifically for my wedding day. I wear it whenever I leave the house and if, when I get where I am going, I can't park I have a habit of whispering a little chant over it and touching it to my lips. I have never once failed to find a parking space after doing that, so it has become more and more embedded in my mind. I am at the point where I feel mildly uncomfortable if I ever forget to put it on.

The power of belief can have a powerful effect on us.  Maybe if we truly believe that something is going to happen, such as believing that Friday 13th is going to be unlucky, that terrible things are going to happen to us all day, then that is what we get. I am not talking about huge dramatic things such as cars exploding and zombies walking the earth, but those little niggling things that drive us to distraction. How irritated are you going to be by the end of the day if you discover mistakes in every document you type after you have printed it out, or worse, after you have posted it out? Or if you keep tripping over things, bumping your elbow? And the more that happens, the more annoyed you will get and the more often things will go wrong.

www.thesafetybloke.com

So, where to superstitions come from? I would have to say that for me, there are some that probably come about through common sense. I'm not daft enough to walk - or in my case roll my wheelchair - under a ladder when someone is working on it. It might fall on me, or if someone is using it I may get splatted with paint or a piece of guttering fall on my head. However I still think it is more likely that someone working up a ladder is going to get hurt than someone walking underneath one.


A lot of cultural superstitions are often handed down to us through history and, while they seem silly to us now, it is surprising just how many of us still pay attention to them. How many of you could break a mirror and not so much as think that you may be about to receive seven years bad luck?