The die is already cast, spoiled.
Neither get married nor embark, adds the homeland ditty, sponsored by the rhyme. And something similar should think of USA , because according to a study , on a day like today, l people don't take flights or conduct business as they routinely would . And although, it is true, the statistical planet is full of extravagant theses, this one is based on one of the most infallibly irrational points of human nature: fear.
Not surprisingly, all cultures carry different superstitions. But let's start with today's: apparently the fear of friday the 13th dates back to 1307, the day on which the persecution order against the order of the Knights Templar by the Holy Inquisition , who were simultaneously arrested that same night across Europe. And then, a thousand legends, of diffuse truth and rather obscurantist, but enough to spread the chill from mouth to mouth. But since there are people for everything, in Italy they carry other ghosts: number 17 is the one assigned to bad fortune. And in Japan, the 4, which is also pronounced 'shi', the same as 'death'.
In any case, the fear of 14-1 is anchored in the origin of time. If you count the number of diners in the Last Supper will give you this figure. The jewish kabbalah he lists the number of evil spirits at 13, and the same thing happens in Norse legends. and in the Apocalypse , it's a coincidence, cachis la mar, chapter 13 narrates the adventures of the Antichrist and the beast.
But it is not always necessary to have a calculator at hand to look for reasons for uneasiness. poor black cats , some would say, subjected to social apartheid because of their never-clarified links with the Western sorcery, and with bad luck in Japan . And what about the stairs with workers perched on them. Open on the ground, they take on the shape of a triangle. And this figure carries a multitude of connotations: sacred and disturbing for the tetraktys of the Pythagoreans and the Holy Christian Trinity. Less allegorical was what happened in the Pre-guillotine France: the condemned to death were made to pass under the stairs that led them to the scaffold.
Can it be more bad?
Tragic for the arteries, salt is also a disastrous weapon for the clumsy. Spill out salt is considered in Europe, and by extension, in its former colonies, as a devil's omen . And Beelzebub, always so idle, rushes to the call. A clear example, which could be used as a plot for an international bestseller, is found in the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, where Judas appears spilling salt with his elbow. As a solution to recover your fortune: popular esotericism proposes throwing a handful of salt over your left shoulder, as if a rocket salad laden with good luck awaits behind you. And yet in Japan, if you go to a funeral you should sprinkle salt on yourself so as not to catch the (obvious) bad luck of the corpse.
A tradition from the Mediterranean basin ensures that spitting is highly recommended in these cases. It happens in Greece, where it is not uncommon to see people spitting three times with special emphasis on onomatopoeia: what comes to be a sonorous 'ftú'. More eschatological is the welcome mat for the Greek newborns: they are spit on three times to ward off the evil eye . And so ingrained is the belief that during the Orthodox baptism the priest and the godparents repeat the maneuver on the child, who at that point only wants to grow up so that he can be the one to spit on others.
'For those who are afraid, everything is noise,' said Quevedo with his usual luminescence. That's why if you don't turn off blow out all the candles on your birthday cake, you're going to get in trouble. We all know it since this tradition started in the German Late Middle Ages. Or that a broken mirror can burden you with calamities for the next 7 years of your life. In many African countries, albinos and redheads are seen as demons . Who knows, anything can happen. So just in case, let's knock on wood, even if it splinters.