By Melody Hanatani
Daily Press Staff Writer

THIRD STREET — When Orlando Cruz ascended a 15-foot ladder Thursday on the Promenade to work on a building near Santa Monica Boulevard, he noticed something odd about the passersby below.

Just about every person on the sidewalk opted not to continue on their path.

“Almost everyone walked around [the ladder],” he said.

David Garber was one such walker. He remembered the myth that walking under a ladder would inflict bad luck, pausing before the construction workers came down and solved his dilemma for him.

Such predicaments will be plentiful today — Friday the 13th, when superstitions emerge in full across the world.

Garber, who does not describe himself as a superstitious person, said he won’t be taking any special precautions today, but may be putting on a strong front. The bartender at O’Brien’s Pub on Main Street admits he does have a tendency to throw salt over his shoulder whenever he accidentally knocks over a shaker.

“I don’t know why,” he said of his habit. “I just always heard that was a superstition.”

According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, “Friday the 13th” is a combination of two traditional beliefs that both the day Friday and the number 13 are jinxed.

The first record of Friday the 13th as being a day of superstition dates back to around 1913, said Henry Ansgar Kelly, professor emeritus of English at UCLA and an ordained exorcist.

The dislike for Friday first appeared in the middle ages and the fear of all things 13 surfaced around the 17th century.

From the 18th through 20th centuries, Fridays were widely thought to be a dangerous day to travel, move, get married or give birth — a nod to an old Catholic belief that held Friday to be a day reserved for penance.

Today, the superstition says that Friday is the day of traffic accidents, the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore states.

The number 13 was not considered to be an unfortunate number until the late 17th century, when a new belief arose that if 13 people dined together, one person in the group would die within a year.

Today, 13 is still widely considered to be unlucky and some people have developed a fear for the number, called triskaidekaphobia. Oftentimes, buildings will not acknowledge a 13th floor and hotels are conspicuously devoid of any room numbers with the numerals 1 and 3 together.

Kelly said many cultures have adopted an unlucky number. In Italy, 17 is considered to be the number to avoid. He added that the marrying of the unlucky day and number — Friday and 13 — “was only a matter of time.”

“The big surprise is how recent the first incident was,” he said.

The concept of a superstitious Friday the 13th has been played out in popular culture in recent decades with movies like the “Friday the 13th” franchise, which features a hockey mask-clad killer named Jason.

At aahs!! on Wilshire Boulevard, a gift store specializing in Halloween costumes and gag gifts, customers have been flocking to a section created for Friday the 13th merchandise.

Manager Nitu Chopra said on Thursday that he had sold approximately $200 in Friday the 13th movie merchandise, black fuzzy cats and rabbit’s foot keychains within a 48-hour period. He expects the store to sell almost double that today.

“Generally, we don’t have a special section,” Chopra said. “This year, we have a special section for Friday the 13th because it’s in October.”

He might do well to keep his fingers crossed.