Tomorrow is Friday the 13th. Some will be on high alert all day; others will barely give it a notice. I am one in the latter category. I do not consider myself superstitious (knock on wood), although I haven’t always been this way.

When I was a kid growing up in Summit Hill, my mother told me that if I stepped on the cracks on the sidewalks that I would be breaking the devil’s dishes. My friends and I would sometimes spend an hour or more making sure that the devil would have to restock his supply of plates, cups and saucers.

As I got older and realized how foolish this was, I reasoned that if Hell is the kind of place that we are told it is going to be, I doubt whether the devil will be extending any hospitality that requires dishes.

Back then, I was petrified of Friday the 13th, which comes around usually once a year, such as in 2021, but sometimes as often as two or three times. Next year, it also will occur just once, on May 13, but in 2023 and 2024, it shows up twice each year.

So, if tomorrow turns out to be a bummer, you’ll have a ready excuse. There was a man in Summit Hill when I was a teenager who told us that he locks himself in his room at one minute before midnight on Thursday, the 12th, then spends the next 24 hours there so no harm will come to him. We thought this was pretty extreme.

There are Friday the 13th clubs around the country, including one in Philadelphia, where members gather to tempt the fates. So far, there have been no unexplained deaths or other issues.

When Phil Klein, the Philadelphia journalist started the club in the City of Brotherly Love in 1936, he said, “There is no such thing as bad luck. People should have more courage, show more guts and not hide behind excuses and superstitions.”

Researchers are not as quick to dismiss the mystique of this day. Absenteeism runs higher than normal, although I maintain that all Fridays are a worker’s favorite day to play hooky and extend the weekend.

To this day, there are few hotels - never at a casino - that have a 13th floor. In France, you will rarely find a house number with a “13.” The numbering sequence goes from 12 to 12½ to 14.

If you are throwing a dinner party, you are advised never to invite 13 to dine - very tacky and likely to make some guests uncomfortable. If you are invited to a party where 14 were invited but just 13 show up, sprinkle some salt over your shoulder at the dinner table that nothing bad happens.

The fear of 13 has several origins. One goes back to Norse mythology where a banquet was held at Valhalla, home of the gods. Twelve gods had been invited, but Loki, the spirit of strife and evil, was not.

Loki crashed the party, so the legend goes, and during the evening’s festivities, Baider, the favorite god, was killed, and Loki, the 13th guest, was blamed for his death.

The fear also dates to The Last Supper where 13 had gathered in the Upper Room - Jesus and the 12 apostles. Since the supper preceded Jesus’ crucifixion, it was taken as an omen of death and misfortune.

Some researchers contend that if Good Friday, the day Jesus is said to have died on the cross, were converted into the present-day calendar, it would have fallen on a Friday the 13th.

For years in Dunham, England, blacksmiths refused to shoe horses on Friday the 13th, because the hammers and nails were associated with the Crucifixion.

Black cats crossing our path any day send a shiver down the spines of some, but when it occurs on Friday the 13th the fear is palpable.

It would seem that walking under a ladder is ill-advised on any occasion because of the possibility of being splattered by paint or bopped on the head by a falling tool. It is especially worrisome if it is done on Friday the 13th, although I admit that as a young adult I would go out of my way to walk under a ladder on Friday the 13th to spit in the eye of the superstition.

The same goes for breaking a mirror. When early men and women saw their images in the still waters of lakes or ponds, but then those images were broken by someone throwing a rock, people believed that this signaled that something bad was going to happen.

Just remember: If any of this is spooking you, you won’t have to go through it again for nine more months.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.