Grab Your Horseshoes & 4-Leaf Clovers ... It's FRIDAY THE 13TH!!

Whether or not you believe in it’s powers … EVERYONE knows about Friday the 13th!!

But how did the superstition even start!?

Check out this list of Friday the 13th Fun Facts, created by Mental Floss!

1. THE BIBLE HELPED INSPIRE THE PHOBIA: During the Last Supper, there were 13 guests—Jesus and his 12 apostles, one of which, Judas, would eventually betray him. Since then, some have believed in a superstition regarding 13 guests at a dinner table. This slowly extended to be an overall feeling that the number itself was bad luck.
   Of course, when Jesus was crucified, it took place on a Friday, leading some to view the day with an anxious eye.
2. So did Loki: The Last Supper is one view on the origins of our fear of 13. Another comes from Norse mythology—more specifically in the form of the trickster god Loki. In those stories, Loki tricked the blind god Höðr into killing his brother Baldr with a dart of mistletoe. Baldr’s mother, Frigg, had previously ordered everything in existence to never harm her son, except the mistletoe, which she viewed as incapable of harm.How does 13 figure into this? Some accounts say Baldr’s death took place at a dinner held for 12 gods before it was interrupted by Loki—the 13th (and most unwanted) guest.
3. A 1907 NOVEL PLAYED A BIG PART IN CREATING THE SUPERSTITION:  One popular thought, though, points to a 1907 book by a stockbroker named Thomas Lawson. Titled Friday, the Thirteenth, it tells the tale of a stockbroker who picks that particular day to manipulate the stock market and bring all of Wall Street down.The book sold fairly well at the time, moving 28,000 copies in its first week. And it must have struck a chord with early 20th century society, as it’s said to have caused a real-life superstition among stockbrokers regarding trading and buying stocks on the 13th. While not the first to combine the dates, Lawson’s book is credited with popularizing the notion that Friday the 13th is bad news.The fear among brokers was so real that in a 1923 New York Times article, it stated that people “would no more buy or sell a share of stock today than they would walk under a ladder or kick a black cat out of their path.”
4. STOCKBROKERS HAVE REASON TO BE NERVOUS: Lawson’s book was pure fiction, but the history of the stock market on Friday the 13th can be either profitable or absolutely terrifying, depending on the month. On most Friday the 13ths, stocks have actually risen—according to Time, they go up about 57 percent of the time, compared to the 52 percent on any other given date. However, if it’s a Friday the 13th in October … be warned.There’s an average S&P drop of about 0.5 percent on those unlucky Fridays in October. And on Friday, October 13, 1989, the S&P actually saw a drop of 6.1 percent—to this day, it’s still referred to as a “mini crash.”
5. GOOD THINGS HAPPEN ON THAT DAY TOO, THOUGH! IT’S ALSO THE DAY HOLLYWOOD GOT ITS SIGN: On Friday, July 13, 1923, the United States got a brand new landmark as the famed Hollywood sign was officially christened as a promotional tool for a new housing development. But before the sign took on its familiar image, it initially read “Hollywoodland”—the full name of the development that was being built on the hills above Los Angeles. The signtook on its current “Hollywood” look in 1949 when, after two decades of disrepair, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce decided to remove the last four letters and just maintain the first nine.
6. APPROPRIATELY, IT’S THE DATE HEAVY METAL WAS BORN: This one isn’t exactly scientific, but don’t tell that to a metalhead. According to heavy metal lore, the genre was born Friday, February 13, 1970, with the UK release of Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album. Bands like Steppenwolf had laid the foundation in the years before (Steppenwolf is also credited with coining the term “heavy metal” in their lyrics for 1968’s “Born to Be Wild“), but those first dissonant “Devil’s Tritone” chords of “Black Sabbath“—yes, the opening track of the album Black Sabbath by the band Black Sabbath was the song “Black Sabbath”—were the true birth of the dark, brooding, rocking subculture. Horns up.

Do you believe in Friday the 13th???

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