Did you Know…?

This Friday will be the 13th the first one this year.

Streets named by numbers often skip the number 13, and in high rise buildings, the twelfth floor is almost always followed immediately by the 14th floor.  The 13th floor is simply "skipped" over or given a "safer" label

The legend of the number 13 itself goes back to 600 B.C. and the philosophy of Pythagoras, who believed that 13 did not mean a cutoff, but rather a chance for evolution and change.  It did not point to warnings of endings but rather to new beginnings.  Thus, it was a number to be favored and a favorable date on which to enter this world.

    Friday the 13th was also a holy day in the Church. A true miracle occurred at St. Paul’s Cathedral, in London, on Friday the 13th in December, 1940.  The lives of hundreds of people were saved when the famous church remained untouched during one of the worst air raids in the history of World War II.

This magical day has even made baseball history! On Friday, April 13th, 1984, Pete Rose hit a double off Jerry Koosman in Olympic Stadium to become only the second player to reach the 4,000-hit level, after Ty Cobb.

Regardless of Friday the 13th’s history, there is an inexplicable sense that luck can be dramatically altered on this date — a feeling so strong that, so every Friday the 13 at 13:13pm I say a little wish.