Friday 13th March

Friday the 13th. Sends shivers down a lot of spines and is very unlucky for some.

Some interesting facts and superstitions about the number 13:

*Italians don’t use the number 13 in their national lottery.

*It’s bad luck to fly on Friday the 13th.

* The 13 ball is the least likely number to come up in the UK lottery, since it’s inception in 1994.

* It has been suggested that if 13 people all sit down at a table together at once, that they will all will die within a year.

* Beware of naming your children anything with 13 letters, example, Charles Manson.

* There are 13 witches in a coven.

* We have 3 Friday the 13ths in 2009, February, March and again in November!

* The British Navy is notoriously afraid of Friday the 13th. Nonetheless, it built a ship named Friday the 13th. On its maiden voyage, the vessel left dock on a Friday the 13th and was never heard from again.

* If you were born on a Friday the 13th then today is your LUCKY day!

* Many tall buildings do not have a 13th Floor, because if they did, no one would want to stay on them.

* Most hospitals do not have a room 13.

* A baker’s dozen is described by a dozen loaves of bread with the 13th being an offering to the devil so he would not spoil the other 12.

* More than 60 million people do not go to work, drive or leave their house on this unlucky day.

* The seals on the back of a United States dollar bill include 13 steps on the pyramid, 13 stars above the eagle’s head, 13 war arrows in the eagle’s claw and 13 leaves on the olive branch.

* President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal.

* The ill-fated Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 CST on 4/11/70. The sum of the date’s digits is 13. The explosion that crippled the spacecraft occurred on April 13th.

* According to the British Medical Journal the risk of a car accident in the UK increases by more than 50% on Friday the 13th.