NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Don’t step on any cracks picking up that penny! It’s Friday the 13th and some people are serious about their superstitions, like New Orleans Psychic Cari Roy.
“Well people think that Friday the 13th is a negative because it’s based on Judas being the thirteenth diner at the Last Supper, the Last Supper occurred on a Friday. People associate it with being lucky or unlucky depending on them. You’d be interested to see the statistics of how many gamblers actually go to casinos on Friday the 13th and utilize that for a little extra shot of luck yet, there are buildings that won’t have the number thirteenth floor in it. It really depends how you look at it,” says Roy.
In New Orleans we have our own superstitions. “You have Marie Laveau’s tomb which everybody knows is so, so New Orleans. In the old tradition all you had to do was knock on the tomb of Marie Laveau and ask for your wish and leave her something personal, pleasant you know beautifying and you could get it granted. There’s also Saint Expedite, my personal favorite. Saint Expedite was born in New Orleans because at Our Lady of Guadeloupe Church they received a box that had a statue of a saint for an altar and on the box it said ‘expedite’ and because the nuns didn’t speak the language that’s how we got Saint Expedite and you can go there at Our Lady of Guadeloupe Church on the right hand side and he’ll make sure you get your wish twice as fast.”
“ There are also ones associated with our great tradition of the Saint Joseph’s altar. You can go to Saint Joseph’s altar as a young single girl and steal a lemon off the altar and you’ll get yourself a husband. The other one is of course our famous lucky bean. Now there’s another one for Saint Joseph’s Day that I think is the strangest of all and that is the ‘Axe Man’ superstition. The ‘Axe Man’ was a serial killer here in the 1900’s and so it became like watch out or the Axe Man’s going to get you, if you play jazz music on Saint Joseph’s Day that is going prevent the Axe Man from coming to get you, so I think that’s one of the best of all.”
Some say they’re silly superstitions, lucky charms, but if you look for luck, you might just find it.