If you’re the superstitious type, you might still be in bed with the covers wrapped firmly about your ears. Chances are you’ll be there again in November, the next time the 13th of the month falls on a Friday. But what are you afraid of? What’s so bad about Friday the 13th?

The 13th I can understand. There are a lot of folks who fear the number 13. Apparently, many of them are architects. According to National Geographic, more than 80% of the high-rise buildings in the U.S. don’t have a 13th floor. More precisely, they label the floor after 12 as floor 14. They even have a word for the fear of 13: triskaidekaphobia.

There are a lot of theories to explain the fear. The pagan theory: The Norse gods had a party up in Valhalla one day. 12 gods were invited. 13 showed up. The uninvited guest was Loki, the troublemaker that nobody liked. Loki apparently persuaded Hoder, the blind god of darkness, to shoot the popular and hunky Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy. When Hoder’s poison-tipped arrow struck Balder, all heck broke loose. The earth mourned and was shrouded in darkness.

The Christian theory is a lot simpler. There were 13 guests at the Last Supper. You know who number 13 was? Judas Iscariot.

But it’s the Friday part of the Friday the 13th superstition that I find puzzling. I thought Friday was supposed to be a good day—the “F” in TGIF. For 50 weeks of the year, we thank the almighty that it’s Friday. What did Friday ever do to deserve the evil reputation it has on those two weeks of the year (three in 2009) when it’s the 13th of the month?

The only bad things about Friday I could find in my exhaustive historic research (as exhaustive as any search can be in the space of 10 minutes): Jesus was crucified on a Friday. That would certainly be enough to hurt any day’s image. And on Friday, October 13, 1307, French King Philip IV executed a bunch of Knights Templar. Thereafter, followers of the victims decried Friday the 13th as an evil day. Somehow, the October part of the date got off the hook.

Still, we can’t blame it all on history and pagans. Any hope that the superstition might die out in modern times was probably snuffed out forever by those hideous Jason Friday the Thirteenth slasher movies that continue today.

So, do your best to get through the day; and help your workers do the same. Remember that while it’s easy to poke fun of superstitions, there are people who really believe them. And when superstition, no matter how irrational, affects behavior, it becomes a real world problem.

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