Superstitious? Here Comes A Whole Year Ending in 13!
Jan-02-2013

For prophets of doom, the failure of the world to end Dec. 21 may have been a bit of a letdown. Now, the calendar brings a new possibility for anxious obsession: a whole year ending in the unlucky number 13.
Thirteen has been associated with bad luck for centuries. Many people cite the Biblical Last Supper, where Jesus Christ gathered with his 12 disciples, as a reason for the stigma. In Norse mythology, the troublesome Loki is said to have spoiled a dinner in Valhalla by arriving as the 13th participant. There is even a word for the dread of those digits: triskaidekaphobia.
Any year that may begin with a fiscal cliff doesn't sound very promising. Yet, because the past few years have been so distressing, many people figure 2013 can hardly be much worse. "My hope is that things are going to improve," says Suzan Hollist, a substitute teacher in the Pittsburgh area whose son, Parker, was born on a Sept. 13.
Some fretful folks, of course, may have been so fixated on rumors that the world would end on Dec. 21, supposedly the end of the Mayan calendar, that they have only recently begun to stew over the implications of 2013.
There have been some precautions. The Times Square Museum & Visitor Center in New York recently displayed a collection of 13 good-luck charms, including a horseshoe, a four-leaf clover and a rabbit's foot.
America's leading expert on 13 may be Tom Fernsler, a 59-year-old math teacher at the University of Delaware. He became interested in the topic in 1987 when he noticed that there were three Friday the 13ths in that year, something that he later found happens about once every 11 years.
He calculated that there are three Friday the 13ths within six months once every 28 years, as occurred in 2012. Dr. Fernsler, who gives lectures under the name Dr. 13, learned the lore and uses it in programs aimed at making math more fun for children.
When he is asked whether we should be wary of 2013, Dr. Fernsler has no hesitation: "Nah." He believes 13 has become a historic superstition, one people joke about but few fear.

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