Gerry Goldstein: An ideal day for pressing your luck

Friday the 13th is fast approaching, and contrary to prevailing opinion, it could be your breakout day.

So when it arrives, throw caution to the wind – walk under a ladder, cross paths with a black cat, break a mirror, step on a crack.

As for that last one, chances are you will not break your mother’s back. 

But don’t take my word for it – find out for yourself by celebrating the obscure holiday known as “Defy Superstition Day.”  

It comes around every Sept. 13, not just on a Friday, to remind us that we needn’t be too serious about some of the old wives’ tales that many still believe. 

In fact, according to the magazine Psychology Today, a Gallup poll found that some 25 percent of Americans identify as superstitious.

Most authorities say superstitions evolved from fear of the unknown and a desire to please whatever forces bring good or bad luck. But they also note that some illogical beliefs have a practical side: Walking under a ladder carries obvious risks.

As for breaking mirrors and then enduring seven years of bad luck, ancients believed a mirror carried portions of one’s soul that would be injured by the damage.

Opening an umbrella inside the house is a bad-luck taboo whose origins have been traced to ancient Egypt (yes, they had parasols then), where using them indoors was considered offensive to the sun god.

One website says it has polled people in every state to determine which is the most common superstition there.

The results for Rhode Island can literally be taken with a grain (or more) of salt.

That’s the belief that if you spill salt you’re in for bad luck unless you scoop some of it up and throw it over your shoulder. The “reasoning” is that the spill prompts the devil to lurk behind you, so salt tossed backward will get into his eyes and blind him.

The origins of the Sept. 13 “holiday” are obscure, but some credit its creation around 1987 to Tom Fernsler, a now-retired University of Delaware mathematician. He encouraged people to spend the day confronting and upending superstitions, especially those related to the bad-luck number 13 (there were 13 people at the Last Supper).

How widespread is superstition? In a University magazine interview, Fernsler once said, “Eighty-seven percent of all the people in the world are superstitious about something. The other 13 percent are liars.”

The broader lesson of Defy Superstition Day may have nothing to do with superstition at all – maybe it’s a chance to think about the borders of our comfort zones and the value of occasionally stepping outside them.   

But that’s getting esoteric. As a a modest beginning, enjoy this enlightening “holiday” – maybe by taking a risk and daring to open an umbrella inside the house.

You’ll have no bad luck at all – and to make sure of that, I’m crossing my fingers and knocking on wood.

Gerry Goldstein (gerryg76@verizon.net). a frequent contributor, is a retired Providence Journal editor and columnist.