Friday The 13th - Times Three

Today is the third Friday the 13th of 2009. The first two were in February and March. The last time this happened was in 1998.

Bad Luck? Good Luck? Who Knows?

You know the saying that celebrities always die in threes. If that's the case, this could be a triple bad day for folks who fear it, folks who have what's called Paraskavedekatriaphobia.

Interestingly enough, Paraskavedekatriaphobia is derived from two Greek words -- Paraskevi (Friday) and dekatreis (thirteen) attached to phobia -- yet Greeks are not superstitious about it. In fact, in Greece, for something like 800 years, the fearful day is Tuesday the 13th because Constantinople fell to Christians on Tuesday, April 13, 1204.

In fact, Friday the 13th is only bad luck in English speaking countries, Germany, Brazil and Portugal. The rest of the world doesn't care.

While you can search  the Internet forever to learn all of the reasons Friday and 13 are unlucky, it appears to me the combination is a relatively new phenomena, something that only became widespread after the publication in 1907 of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel, "Friday the Thirteenth," about an unscrupulous broker who uses the superstition to create a Wall Street panic.

What about three? Is it unlucky, too. Or, could it be lucky enough to offset a Friday the 13th?

One old superstition says that if three candles are lit in a room, the person nearest the shortest candle will either marry first or die first. Another version says it's unlucky to take a third light, such as being the third to light a cigarette from the same match. This is derived from World War I when soldiers in the trenches believed a sniper would see the first light, take aim and the second a fire at the third.

Then again, three can be lucky. In Chinese culture it's lucky because it sounds like the word "alive." Counting to three is common for situations of cooperation ("one, two, three, pull" or starting a foot race with "ready," "set" and "go.). It is the trinity. And look at what comes in threes, from the Three Wise Men to the Three Stooges to the Three Little pigs.

It is all what you believe.

The next time Friday the 13th occurrs three times in one year is 2012 -- in January, April and July. Our calendar also has three Friday the 13ths in 2015 -- February, March and November -- but not again until 2026.