But why the big hooha over one day.

No-one's quite certain but most people believe it's a modern phenomenon with the earliest reference in English printed in 1869 in the biography of Gioachino Rossini. But the fear of the day may be a combination of factors.

In numerology, the number 12 is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the 12 months of the year and the 12 Apostles of Jesus, whereas the number 13 is considered irregular.

Add to that a drop of superstition from the Last Supper – having 13 people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners – and the popular view from the book the Da Vinci Code is that Friday 13th was the day the Knights Templar were rounded up and killed and you've gone some way to discovering why some suffer a brief bit of panic.

Ian Hawthorne, founder of Wigan Area Society for Paranormal Study and Investigation, or WAS PSI for short, explained:
"Historically Friday 13th is deemed an unlucky day. There are many suggestions why, including the number of people at the ill fated Last Supper.

"But superstition is also a belief system many of us pick up in childhood from friends and family.

"We pick up our superstitions from our friends and family from games we play as children, like not stepping on the cracks in the pavement, but it's also people's own observations of ever day life. For instance, a green tie that every time they wear it to work something bad happens.

They pick up on it and never wear it again."
In Wigan this handed-down superstition means you're more likely to
panic over a magpie than a day.

Ian said: "That's probably because one of the first references to magpies being an ill omen was written in J Collier's 1763 book on Lancashire Dialect when he makes reference to them being a sign of bad Fartin (fortune).

"So people ward-off bad luck by saying, 'Good morning Mr Magpie'.
"Others prevalent in Wigan include 'touching wood' for good luck."