You wake up at the sound of the alarm and you notice that it's Friday the 13th! You stagger into the bathroom, drop the mirror, and bingo! Seven years of bad luck! Friday the 13th alright, it is really going to be your unlucky day!

During the preparations of breakfast there are now several cautions to be observed:

• don't stir you companion's cup as this will stir up strife -
  
• don't spill the milk or open the egg at the small end -
  
• don't spill the salt, and don't burn the toast!

Well, in your agitated state you manage to burn the toast so badly that it catches fire in the toaster. As you attempt to save the blackened bread from setting the whole house on fire, you realize that you have done it again! Burnt bread, naturally, feeds the devil, and he will be lurking very close behind to avoid the salt that you will for sure be throwing into his eyes before very long.

As you leave your house on your weary way to work, you avoid anything that might offend the fates. A ladder!!! You carefully step around it, what a relief, but the wind catches you unawares and you sneeze. It happened so quickly that you didn't have time to put your hand in front of your mouth. Now you are in trouble for sure, for your soul has unceremoniously escaped from your body.

You arrive at work, surprisingly still in one piece considering your bad luck so far, and someone says: "Well, you sure got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" No kidding! You mumble something about it being Friday the 13th and stagger to your desk. Tripping over your own feet, you look down at your shoes and realize that a lace is broken! Now apart from the intense embarrassment involved that you are walking around like a bum with a broken shoelace, you realize that thunder and lightening will strike before noon. In order to fix your laces, you place the shoe on your desk. Oh no! You forgot! There will be a serious quarrel at home tonight. The shoe also must never be worn again, for such shoes can only be employed for the long walk into the underworld.

So in the midst of broken shoelaces, sore feet, impending household unrest, not to mention the horoscope which was not at all encouraging this morning, you are by now convinced that, if this day isn't your last, then for sure you will be fired from your job, have a serious accident, end up divorced and be mutilated for the rest of your life.

Eventually, somehow the day passes and you are still miraculously alive.

Dinner time! It seems almost that we can barely avoid the devil when it comes to feeding time. Water spilt, salt spilt, a fork or a piece of meat dropped. All these things will permit him to lean closer over your shoulder, where he normally waits for these accidents to occur. Pick up the spilt salt and quickly throw it into his eyes, right to left, over the shoulder, and you may blind him long enough to escape the moment of bad fortune. Salt is the saving grace, for it is the purest substance on earth and stronger than holy water which you are unlikely to have on tap anyways. Keep a few pounds of pure salt around the house for emergencies. Buy enough to pass them to all the guests that leave your house. This will store up your good fortune for the future, like a savings account, with interest.

This may not be precisely you, but how about breaking a mirror?
How about the ladder, the fallen salt, the black cat, Friday the 13th?
Or what about lines in the pavement, kissing under the mistletoe or many other seemingly innocent events?

There are literally hundreds of such common daily activities which we still observe with some trepidation. We may have lost the original meaning and we may cast doubts as to the real dangers involved, but most of us prefer to observe the ancient lore, just in case?

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