Aug. 13, 2021 marks the first (and only) Friday the 13th of 2021. The last Friday the 13th was Nov. 13, 2020, when President Joe Biden officially won Georgia, Taylor Swift shared a photo of her and Paul McCartney on the cover of December's issue of Rolling Stone, and it was World Kindness Day.
So, while Friday the 13th usually is tied to bad luck—its roots stem from the Last Supper when Jesus and his 12 disciples gathered, and well, you know the rest—perhaps it's time to reclaim the holiday.
Or if you experience triskaidekaphobia, we won't hold it against you if you sit this one out.
Here's a look at financial superstitions from around the world to consider on Friday the 13th.
Don't put your purse on the floor
According to Chinese proverb, "a purse on the floor is money out the door." This can be interpreted in lots of ways—for one, putting your purse on the floor makes it easier for a thief to snag it. But according to the superstition, it's bad Feng Shui because it's showing disrespect and disregard for your money.
Literally freeze your credit card
This is less of a superstition and more of a way to just avoid using your credit card. Take your plastic and put it in a freezer-safe container, fill it with water, and stick it in the freezer. The idea is that if your credit cards are on ice, you'll be less tempted to use them because of the hassle you'll need to go through to defrost them. If you're working toward paying off credit card debt and don't want to build more, this might be a decent, albeit impractical, approach.
Though if you've got those credit card digits stored in your web browser or use Apple/Google Pay, this isn't going to work.
A spider in your pocket will keep it flush with cash
From Great Britain to Trinidad and Tobago, when you find a particular type of spider (aptly nicknamed money spiders, which fall in the Linyphiidae family) on your clothes or in your pocket, that pocket will never be empty again. That's good news for everyone except arachnophobes.
Only pick up pennies that are heads up
"Tails never fails" in a coin toss—so they say, in reality it's an exactly 50-50 chance, but I digress—but when it comes to pennies on the ground, superstition says you should only pick up the ones with the Lincoln side up.
"Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck [as long as it's heads-up]."
A bird pooping on you = future wealth
With the amount of bird droppings I've come across on my windshield, you'd think I was Bernard Arnault. I guess I needed them to drop those deuces on me, not my car.
In Turkey, getting hit by bird droppings is considered good luck, and tradition calls for buying a lottery ticket the day it happens. Across cultures, a bird pooping on you can supposedly be a sign of future wealth.
You can find me on the beach waiting for seagulls to do their thing.
Press Release Service by Newswire.com
Original Source: A Look at Financial Superstitions From Around the World to Celebrate on Friday the 13th
