DETROIT – If you have triskaidekaphobia -- a fear of Friday the 13th --then you know what's happening today. For the second consecutive month, you have to deal with a Friday the 13th.
You'll have a break before preparing for another one in November.
According to Bruce McClure, who wrote a great article about Friday the 13th, it wasn't until the 19th century that Friday the 13th started taking on the scary undertones that it has today.
Friday had always been sort of a bad luck day, and the number 13 was seen as unlucky for some, but linking the two together to create a really bad luck day is less than 200 years old.
McClure points out (and I'm not going to confuse you with all of his math) that when non-leap years start on a Thursday, and this year is one of them, then Friday the 13th occurs in February, March and November.
The last time this happened was 2009, and the next occurrence will be in 2026.
But can three Friday the 13ths occur in a leap year? Yep…IF that year starts on a Sunday.
It's a good thing that Jan. 1 didn't fall on a Thursday two years ago, because then you triskaidekaphobics would have had three Friday the 13ths in 2013. You would have had to hide under a rock for the entire year! Now that you know why we have three Friday the 13ths this year, don't walk under any ladders or break any mirrors today.