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It's Friday the 13th, that worrying day frequently associated with bad luck and disaster.
But is there really any reason for concern? Should we throw salt over our shoulders and avoid ladders like the plague?
A local psychic whose business it is to foresee calamity believes Friday the 13th hoopla is simply much ado about nothing.
"It's just another day," said Delores (who declined to give her last name) from West Broadway's Mystic Eye Psychic. "There's nothing there really to worry about ... I've been a psychic for 60 years and I've never had a premonition of anything [bad] happening on Friday the 13th."
Though she's familiar with a variety of superstitious customs (i.e. avoiding black cats), Dolores doesn't put much stock in them.
"Me, I've never done 'em," she said.
According to a cultural sociologist at Kwantlen University, Dolores isn't the only one downplaying superstition these days.
"We're talking about remnants of past beliefs," said Sam Migliore. "[Superstitions] are now no longer important to us...as soon as we call it a superstition we're suggesting it's something from our past."
Migliore said origins surrounding Friday the 13th lore come from a plethora of different sources.
"It depends on the particular culture," he said. "If you're looking at Christianity, [Friday is considered unlucky] because it's the day Christ was crucified."
Similarly, he added, the number 13 is considered unnatural and irregular because it breaches the unity of the 12 apostles.
Yet even if Friday the 13th truly is a forbearer of bad luck, Dolores claims there's not much you could do about it anyway.
"You can't change what is coming in your life," she said. "What's seen in your future, you cannot change."\ ---\ -Friday the 13th
- Every month that starts with a Sunday will have a Friday the 13th
- The next Friday the 13th is in August 2010
- There's an average of two Friday the 13ths per year. There were three in 2009 - the next instance of this happening isn't until 2015.
Superstitions:
- Black cats: Throughout the Middle Ages, folklore ascribed black cats as spies for witches or demons.
- Broken Mirrors: Mirrors were once thought to have supernatural abilities, and were frequently used by prophets and clairvoyants to predict the future. Therefore, it was believed that when a window was broken, you shattered your future.
- Crows: One reason for this bird's ominous status stems from ancient Greece where they were considered foretellers of death.