Friday the 13th

Today is Friday 13th. The day people with Paraskevidekatriaphobia have been dreading since, umm the last one. August last year according to the calendar. Well, rest assured, there isn't another one this year. Why do people fear this date? I heard somewhere that is was something to do with the amount of people at the last supper. Which if I knew anything about religion would make me go. ooohhh. As if it suddenly made sense. But as I dont, I may have to google it to find out more and share it with you.
Things I have found out about Friday 13th.
1. According to Dr. Donald Dossey, a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of phobias and coiner of the term "paraskevidekatriaphobia," the figure may be as high as 21 million Americans suffering from the morbid fear of Friday 13th.
2. It is said: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year. Which I vaguely remember from Harry Potter.
3. Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. We don't have a 13th room or a table 13 in our hotel.
4. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). Luckily mine doesn't.
5. It has been proposed, for example, that fears surrounding the number 13 are as ancient as the act of counting. Primitive man had only his 10 fingers and two feet to represent units, so he could not count higher than 12, according to this explanation. What lay beyond that — 13 — was an impenetrable mystery, hence an object of superstition. Apparently the primitative man did not have toes...
6. The Bible tells us there were exactly 13 present at the Last Supper. One of the dinner guests — er, disciples — betrayed Jesus Christ, setting the stage for the Crucifixion.
Did I mention the Crucifixion took place on a Friday?
7. Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck – as in the tale of H.M.S. Friday ... One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell once and for all the widespread superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned, named "H.M.S. Friday." They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday, and was never seen or heard from again.
8.Any month with a Friday the 13th must begin with a Sunday the 1st. Curiosity leads one to ask if a significance lies in the observation that only months that begin with the day God decided to rest (Sunday), after "creating the world," yield a day of such supposed demonic evil and misfortune.
9.There are 13 members which make up a Wiccan/Pagan Coven to fully cast the Circle. 13 was sacred because it represented the amount of lunar months in year (Thirteen Full Moons).
10. A TRISKAIDEKAPHOBE is one who fears the number 13.
11. A giant asteroid is to pass perilously close to Earth - on Friday, April 13, 2029. Scientists said asteroid 2004 MN4 will make the closest fly-by of Earth for an object of its size in recorded history.
The asteroid, the size of three football pitches, will pass between the Earth and the Moon, though astronomers say there is little chance of a collision.
It is expected to pass 22,600 miles from Earth and will probably be visible to the naked eye from Britain.
12. Winston Churchill was known to put off travelling by air or road on Friday the 13th.
13. It was discovered in a study published in the British Medical Journal in 1993 concerning Friday the 13th, that the risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52%.

Well, there you go. You learn something new every day.