The Magic 8 Ball was invented more than seven decades ago and is still sold today.

For those who might not know about the Magic 8 Ball, it is a plastic 8-ball with a 20-sided die that floats around in blue liquid inside the ball.

There is also a small clear window on the ball where you can see the die, which has 20 responses to questions ranging from affirmative to negative answers along with five vague ones.

Since the answers are limited, instead of the Magic 8 Ball acting like a “fortune teller,” regrettably it is rather the process of probability that prevails.

That doesn’t deter many of us from seeking out its wisdom — just for fun.

Superstitions act in a similar fashion.

I talk about them, and sometimes even act on them as if there is really some validity to them, but just like the Magic 8 Ball — it’s all just for fun — or is it?

Today is Friday the 13th, and as long as I can remember, a Friday the 13th has been deemed an unlucky day.

Bad stuff happens on Friday the 13th.

On the last Friday the 13th in September, my dad had several little mishaps and of course, laughed and said it must have been because it was Friday the 13th.

My brothers are terribly superstitious. They don’t like black cats walking in front of them, $50 dollar bills or Friday the 13th.

Personally, I have no problem with $50 dollar bills.

Several, several years ago, I had something good happen to me on a Friday the 13th. I can’t remember what happened now, but since then, I decided a Friday the 13th could be a lucky day instead of an unlucky one.

And what is it that they say; a self-fulfilled prophecy can influence a person’s behavior?

Therefore, I would rather air on the side of positive self-fulfilled prophecies.

With that being said, my curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to know why Friday the 13th had been deemed unlucky.

“As luck would have it,” at the top of the Google search engine, the classic thriller “Friday the 13th” popped up.

I had to scroll down quite a bit until I found one of my favorite go-to websites, history.com.  

The website stated that according to Biblical Tradition, the superstition was derived from Jesus’ Last Supper with his apostles.

At the meal, 13 guests attend, which included Jesus and his 12 apostles. And on that same night, Judas Iscariot, who was one of the apostles, betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and the following day Jesus was crucified.

It is from this event that a longstanding Christian superstition began. Having 13 guests at a table was a bad omen.

Another Friday the 13th legend began in 1907 after Thomas William Lawson wrote “Friday, the Thirteenth,” and then in 1980, after the horror movie I referred to earlier, was released.

The website also went on to list events in history that happened on Friday the 13th, starting with Friday, Oct. 13, 1307.

Officers of King Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of the Knights Templar, a powerful religious and military order formed in the 12th century for the defense of the Holy Land. Many of these devout Christians were later executed. This event was also thought to have been the origin of why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky.

In more recent times, on Friday the 13th, the Germans bombed Buckingham Palace, and on November 1970, a cyclone killed 300,000 people in Bangladesh.

No doubt, bad things have happened on a Friday the 13th. It’s just — not so good things have also happened on other days of the month, take 9/11 for instance.

While my brothers, along with hordes of others, will walk lightly today, I think I might just go out and buy a lottery ticket now that they sell them in Vicksburg.

It could be my lucky day.

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. She can be reached at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.