Today’s the day when superstition is highest

Are you superstitious?

No? Are you sure? Do you knock on wood or never open an umbrella indoors or never walk under a ladder or avoid breaking a mirror or avoid stepping on a crack in the sidewalk or take a different route if a black cat crosses your path or pick up a stray penny?

OK, well maybe you are superstitious … at least a little.

If there’s no doubt that you’re superstitious, then today’s probably your big day. Today is Friday the 13th, the superstition that tops most yikes lists. (If you encountered someone wearing a hockey mask today, don’t assume it’s Jason Voorhees. But if he’s wielding an axe or machete, then it just may be the movie franchise come to life.)

For those who wonder, there are two unpronounceable words that apply today: triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13) and paraskevidekatriaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th). (Now try using either of these words in conversation today.)

If you’re a “triskie,” don’t fret. You’re one of millions who dread this age-old, most superstitious of days that’s synonymous with bad luck. There are two Friday the 13th’s this year (the other was in January) and two next year, but there was only one in 2021 and 2022, and a single one coming up in 2025. There were three in 2015, and three coming up in 2026.

But why does Friday the 13th get a bum wrap?

Friday has long been considered an unlucky day, because that was the day Jesus died.

The number 13 is commonly linked to early Christians, because there were 13 people — Jesus and his 12 Apostles — present at the Last Supper, and some say Judas was the 13th to join the table. This may be the origin of the superstition that says when 13 dine, one will die within the year.

And it was Friday the 13th in October 1307 that King Philip IV of France had all the Knights Templar arrested.

But in everyday life, the number 13 holds particular importance … or infamy. In most Western-culture hotels, there’s no 13th floor. In addition, many airlines omit the 13th row in seating. And even some cities and towns, when numbering streets, skip over 13th Street. You won’t find a 13th Street in Sallisaw, Vian or Roland, primarily because there are no numbered streets. There’s no 13th Street in Muldrow, either, but that’s because the numbered streets stop at 12th Street. But in Fort Smith, city planners consciously avoided having a 13th Street, at least on the southside — South 12th Street and South 14th Street are one block apart, but there is a North 13th Street. There’s also a 13th Street in Van Buren.

To be sure, good luck is preferable to bad luck. But as philosophers Buck Owens and Roy Clark relented on “Hee-Haw,” if it weren’t for bad luck, we’d have no luck at all.