What is the Story Behind Omens of Luck like Clovers, Cats, Salt and the Number 13?

Feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya? Luck may or may not exist. The existence of luck may be hard to prove, but surely you've got to mull it over considerably when you are trying to explain the long career of Keanu Reeves. Looking for luck can take you from the ground beneath your feet to the curved metal nailed into a horse's hoof.

Four Leaf Clover

What's so lucky about owning a four leaf clover? One thing is for sure: four leaf clovers aren't that rare. So if you toss rarity out of the equation, what is left to account for the luck assigned to the clovers of four leaves? Religion comes into play: those four leaves of the clovers are said to represent the four arms of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Although, it may be difficult to explain to non-Christians what, exactly, the instrument of crucifixion has to do with good luck. Another theory is that as Adam and Eve were given their pink slip out of the Garden of Eden, Eve, ever the rebel, bent down and retrieved a four leaf clover as a keepsake.

Cats

Feline luck really does run the gamut. The Egyptians revered cats and believed wholeheartedly in the luck that their presence ensured. Cats would be buried in the tomb and were treated almost as members of Egyptian families. So what in the name Garfield happened? Again, let us look to the influence of Christianity. The time: the Dark Ages. The Cause: Witchcraft accusations. The rise of witch hunts during the medieval period transformed the cat from an object that brought good luck to an object to be avoided as a sign of bad luck. Leave it to the French to have a Middle Ages celebratory legacy of huge bonfires onto which live cats were tossed as a means of controlling the spread of witches.

Salt

When you knock over a salt shaker on your table, bad luck ensues in a number of ways. Superstition could bring bad luck to you in some way that you can't imagine. Or, you could have spilled salt all over your food, thus making it less than edible. The rarity and value of salt eventually caused it to become a symbol of friendship. Spilling salt thus could be viewed in superstitious terms as an omen of bifurcation of that friendship. Take a closer look the next time you view Leonard Da Vinci's fresco "The Last Supper." That fella there on the right knocking over the salt? That would be one Judas Iscariot. Bifurcation of friendship.

The Number 13

Superstition surrounding the number 13 is so ingrained into the consciousness that it even has its own special phobia: triskaidekaphobia. Do enough reading and you will come across 13 different reasons for fear of the number 13. Go back to Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" and add up 12 apostles with the main man/god in the center. Thirteen people at the last supper of Jesus Christ somehow doesn't really seem to make sense as an explanation for why people fear the number 13 so much that most American skyscrapers don't even give the 13^th floor its proper numbering. Another theory proposed is that Friday the 13^th was the day that the Knights Templar were massacred. One of the coolest and likeliest theories takes us into the realm of Christian assimilation once again. When Christianity pushed into Scandinavia, its practitioners set about wiping out all pagan beliefs. One of the Norse goddesses was Freya, goddess of fertility and love. Freya's sacred day was Friday and her sacred number 13 was based on the 13 months of the pagans' lunar calendar.