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It's Friday the 13th! It’s the only one for this year and next May 13th will be the only one for 2022. Last time we had more than one Friday the 13th in the same year was last year 2020 when it was in March and November. That might explain why it was such a bad year! Anyway, here's how four common superstitions got started.
1. Friday the 13th itself. Nobody knows for sure how it started, but one theory is that it has biblical origins and is tied to the number of guests at the Last Supper and Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday.
2. Breaking a mirror. Ancient Romans believed that mirrors held a piece of your soul . . . and a separate myth said that our body "renews" itself every seven years. So those two things together helped create the "seven years of bad luck" thing.
3. A black cat crossing your path. In the Middle Ages, black cats were associated with witchcraft and demons. And that snowballed into the idea that if a black cat crossed your path, they were blocking your connection to God and path to heaven.
4. Knocking on wood. The idea here came from ancient civilizations that believed trees housed various spirits . . . and touching the tree would give you a protective blessing from those spirits.
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