Happy Friday the 13th! And other superstitions.

Paraskevidekatriaphobics!

What is this?

A morbid fear of Friday the 13th!

And on this particularly supersitious day, I thought you might enjoy hearing about wives' tales from a few other countries.

Here goes...

If you are in Italy and a cat sneezes, you are in for some good luck.

In other words, go to Italy armed with a bunch of pepper. Then look around for cats.

If you are in England, make sure you slice your bread evenly. Otherwise, people will think you've been telling lies.

Or...make life easy on yourself, and buy pre-sliced bread.

If you happen to be in Korea the night before a big test, don't wash your hair. Or you'll fail the test. Because you washed away the memories of what you studied.

This could be a good excuse for a student in any country who fails a test. "Ooops. I forgot and washed my hair last night. My bad."

If you're in Turkey and come across a spider inside your house, you'll soon have guests showing up.

However, don't expect me to come knocking at your door. I'm not a big fan of spiders.

And last but not least, here's a superstition from my own homeland. If you happen to find yourself living in Canada, and a neighbor brings you a plate of food, return the plate dirty. Or else bad luck will befall you.

Apparently, this superstition only holds true for the Prairie Provinces. I'm from Ontario, and I've never heard of it. But I do like it; one less thing to add to my to-do list.

Disclaimer: I have no idea how accurate these superstitions are. And all the pics are from Google Images. Happy Friday the 13th!





sources:
http://www.utne.com/2006-05-01/FoodSuperstitions.aspx
http:://www.eu-forums.com/tourism/superstitions-in-different-countries-t2356.html
http://www.topics-mag.com/internatl/superstitions/korea.htm
http://www.topics-mag.com/internatl/superstitions/turkey.htm
http://www.fedpubs.com/subject/canada/traditions.htm

Friday the Thirteen

Are you a paraskevidekatriaphobic?

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is an irrational fear of Friday the Thirteenth.

You will look very smart if you toss out this word around the water cooler today at work. However, if you stumble over this word's many many syllables, people will think you splashed vodka in your coffee. The latter could result in some unlucky circumstances.

Thirteen has been considered an unlucky number for forever. Some strange superstitions surrounding the number 13 include:

If 13 people sit around a dinner table together, all will die within a year.
Hmmm. This could come in handy the next time I'm throwing a dinner party. As in when I really don't want to invite a specific someone, I'll say, "I'd love to have you come to my fancy schmancy dinner party that everyone is SoCal is all hyped up about attending. But, unfortunately, I suffer from triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13). And you'd be my 13th guest. And we'd all die. So, as a favor to you and your loved ones, don't even think about showing up at my dinner party.

Don't give your baby a name with 13 letters or he/she'll have the devil's luck.
If only the parents of these people had known: Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo. I have just done a quick count. Phew. None of my children has a name of 13 letters.

Friday has been considered unlucky for forever. (Not in my life, though. I've pretty much always looked forward to Friday. Since, you know, it's the start of the weekend, a good evening to take advantage of happy hour or order pizza for dinner because you're sick to death of cooking which you've been doing all week long.)

Here are some superstitions about Friday:

If you change the sheets on your bed on Friday, you'll have nightmares.
This totally explains why my children won't change their bed on Fridays. And here I thought it had to do with chore avoidance.

If your ship sets sail on Friday, it'll have bad luck.
I'm driving to Malibu later today. Driving. Good. I'm safe from the bad luck thing.

Sorrow will enter your life if you clip your nails on Friday.
You have probably never heard of this superstition. Because information about it has been suppressed by manicurists. But now you know. So, if you insist on getting your nails done on a Friday, well, you're just asking for trouble.

To complicate matters, Greece, Romania and Spain believe Tuesday the 13th is unlucky. For Italians, it's Friday the 17th. This information could come in handy when looking for airline deals.

So, how about it? Anyone out there brave enough to share a superstition.






From: http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/a/friday_the_13th.htm,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskaidekaphobia,http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Friday_the_13th