Photo: Friday the 13th Superstitions Get Rare Workout in 2009

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Traditionally an omen of ill fortune, a black cat crosses a Palermo, Italy, street in an undated photo.

Unlike its feline fellow resident of the bad luck hall of fame, Friday the 13th doesn't have nine lives—it can't even exist more than three times a year, thanks to the eccentricities of the calendar.

Photograph by William Albert Allard/NGS

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