Friday the 13th

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

I’m not sure what it is that I find so fascinating about Friday the 13th. I mean, it’s not really a holiday. You don’t do anything to celebrate it. It’s not even a regular thing — some years there aren’t any, and some years there are as many as three, so it’s really a weird thing.

Fun fact: I got married on Saturday, February 13th, but because of the way calendars work, my anniversary has been on Friday the 13th a few times.

Maybe it’s because of the movies? You know, the ones with hockey mask-wearing machete-weilding maniac Jason Voorhees. They were a big part of my teen years and I’m almost definitely going to watch at least one of those movies at some point today. Sure, they’re just dumb ‘80s horror movies, but they’re fun if you’re into that sort of thing. Honestly, they

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don’t really have anything to do with the whole idea of Friday the 13th being an unlucky day. They kind of shoehorn the idea that Jason’s birthday is on Friday the 13th, but it wouldn’t be the case every year. And I guess it’s an unlucky day for those poor promiscuous camp counselors who are picked off one by one at Camp Crystal Lake or whatever, but the truth is that the producers just wanted to cash in on the recent (at the time) run of successful daythemed horror movies like Halloween, Happy Birthday to Me, Prom Night and Black Christmas.

Funny, as I type this, it feels a little weird to be having a Friday the 13th so close to Christmas… Is this one of the proverbial “12 Days of Christmas?” I have never been real sure how that worked. I mean, no one I know actually observes any “12 days” of anything that I’m aware of.

Hanukkah, I know, thanks to that Adam Sandler song, is “Eight crazy nights,” but what are the 12 days of Christmas?

Should I be out getting my wife a couple of turtle doves right now?

Anyway, this is supposed to be an unlucky day, so watch yourself out there as you make youre way around. And be on the lookout for black cats, ladders to walk under or any potential broken mirrors.

And don’t forget to leave sticks and bones out tonight or Jason might get you!