The origins of Friday superstitions are many. One of the best known is that Eve tempted Adam with the apple on a Friday. Tradition also has it that the Flood in the Bible, the confusion at the Tower of Babel, and the death of Jesus Christ all took place on Friday. Friday was for many years the day of execution of criminals, commonly called "hangman’s day."

The fear of the number 13 (Triskaidekaphobia) may have ancient origins – in Norse Mythology, it is believed that Loki in the Norse pantheon was the 13th god. This was later Christianized into saying that Satan was the 13th angel. The Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1686 BC) omits 13 in its numbered list. This seems to indicate a superstition existed long before the Christian era. The number 13 also retains biblical meanings. At the Last Supper, there were 13 people present. In general, 13 may be considered a "bad" number simply because it is one more than 12, which is a popularly used number in many cultures (due to it being highly composite).

Some buildings number their floors so as to skip the thirteenth floor entirely, jumping from floor 12 to floor 14 in order to avoid distressing triskaidekaphobics, or using 12a and 12b instead. This is sometimes applied to house or room numbers as well. The same is also true of rows in airplanes. The composer Arnold Schoenberg suffered from triskaidekaphobia. He was born and died on the 13th of the month. American singer-songwriter John Mayer had 14 tracks on his album Room for Squares, although the 13th is 0.2 seconds of silence and is not listed on the album cover. Some refer to the near-fatal Apollo 13 mission to the moon as proof of 13 being unlucky. Apollo 13 was launched at 14:13 EST on April 11, 1970 from complex 39 (three times thirteen). Some have previously attributed it to launch on 13:13 EST, which was incorrect. Apparently, Apollo 13 was also going to go through LOI Lunar Orbit Injection on April 13th.

Absurd? Ridiculous? A coincidence?

Below is an abstract of a study published in the British Medical Journal in 1993 entitled "Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?"

Scanlon TJ, Luben RN, Scanlon Fl, Singleton N.

Department of Public Health, Mid Downs Health Authority, Haywards Health, West Sussex.

OBJECTIVE–To examine the relation between health, behaviour, and superstition surrounding Friday 13th in the United Kingdom. DESIGN–Retrospective study of paired data comparing driving and shopping patterns and accidents. SUBJECTS–Drivers, shoppers, and residents. SETTING–South West Thames region. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES–Numbers of vehicles on motorways; numbers of shoppers in supermarkets; and hospital admissions due to accidents. RESULTS–There were consistently and significantly fewer vehicles on the southern section of the M25 on Friday the 13th compared with Friday the 6th. The numbers of shoppers were not significantly different on the two days. Admissions due to transport accidents were significantly increased on Friday 13th (total 65 v 45; p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS--Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52%. Staying at home is recommended.

Spooked already? Don’t be.

Such superstition is erroneous and irrational. It could be a result of misinterpreting correlation as causes and a misunderstanding causality or statistics.

Wikipedia defines superstition as an irrational or invalid belief about the relation between certain actions (often behaviors) and other actions that is not true, such as fear of the number 13. The essence of superstition is not defined by the "truth" of the result, however, but recognized by the methods through which truth is searched for.

Superstitions are for the unlearned.

I say this is a good day to start a blog site. And I just did!