Today is the third Friday the 13th of 2015

It's Friday the 13th! And for the superstitious among us, it's a day when people clutch their four-leaf clovers because back luck lurks around every corner.

Fear of the day even has its own term – friggatriskaidekaphobia.

According to the website www.livescience.com, fear of the day became more widespread following the success of the Friday the 13th series of horror movies in the 1980s, but the origins go further back than that. Some speculate that it goes as far backs as Jesus, who was crucified on a Friday, and had 13 people at the last supper.

“Another popular theory links the superstition to the demise of the Knights Templar, a monastic military order whose members were arrested en masse by France’s King Philip IV on Friday, October 13, 1307,” says the website, history.com.

“Popular culture further denigrated Friday the 13th as early as 1907, when Thomas Lawson wrote a book about a broker who tries to bring down Wall Street on that day.”

And 13 also comes after 12, a number often associated with completeness and perfection.

“Whole, perfect and harmonious, as seen in the 12 apostles, 12 Olympic Gods, 12 animals in the Chinese horoscope and 12 months in the Gregorian calendar,” says www.livescience.com, “Thirteen — by default — is awkward, ungainly and odd.”

Some other information about Friday the 13th:

-This is the third instance this year, after March and April.
-Friday the 13th can only happen in months that begin on a Sunday.
-Many tall buildings and hotels omit the 13th floor, going right from 12 to 14.
-In 2010, lightning struck a 13-year-old boy in Suffolk, England, on Friday 13th at 13:13.
-There have been 12 Friday the 13th movies, the last of which appeared in 2009.
-Confirmation bias is believed to play a part in perpetuating the negative views of Friday the 13th — if something bad happens to you on that day, it's likely to confirm your view that the day is bad luck.