It's Friday the 13th Again! - Moonshine and #13 on Ball Jars

It's Baaackkk! Today is Friday the 13th!

While fruit jars with the number 13 on the base are sought after, glassbottlemarks.com makes a good point: "many of these jars are now saved by non-collectors or casual glass collectors (and “culled” from large groups of common jars) merely because of the number on the base. This culling out of #13 jars from among the “general population” of jars (and stashing them away) can increase the perception of their scarcity."

Moonshiners and fruit jars ~ a confiscated bootleg still.

When taking down a still, revenue officers destroyed everything a moonshiner might use later, including glass jars.  - Franklin County, Virginia, 1965. - [Source]

More from fruitjar.org --

Q.     Are the Ball jars with the number 13 on bottom worth more money and, if so, why?

A.     The ‘Urban Legend’ is that moonshiners used mason jars for their product, and, being superstitious, would break the 'unlucky' ones with 13 on the base.  This made the jars rare. 

                   In truth, moonshiners did in fact use mason jars as the preferred container for their product.  They were a known capacity, were readily available and buying them did not raise suspicion. 

                   Also, jars with 13 on the base are rarer than single digit numbers.  But all the double-digit numbers are rare. The numbers designated the position that the mold occupied on the glassmaking machine, and there were usually 8 or 10 positions on the machine.  The higher numbers were used when a mold was replaced.  Dealers sell jars with 13 on the base at a higher price, but fruit jar collectors and the published price guides do not consider the number on the base to make any difference in value.

                    My opinion is that while moonshiners may have been superstitious, I can't imagine that the housewife would break jars just because they had 13 on the base, and housewives used more jars than moonshiners.  I think that the urban legend was created by antique dealers who wanted to make more money off an otherwise common jar.

Read more about Moonshine here - http://www.smokiesinformation.org/shop/corn-from-a-jar-softcover-1599

In 2012 we had three Friday the 13ths. 2013 had just two of the superstition-laden days will cross our paths. 2014 saw just one, with 2015 back to three occurences. Next one is in May 2016. [Calendar link]

Friday the 13th 2016

Friday, May 13, 2016

Friday the 13th 2017

Friday, January 13, 2017
Friday, October 13, 2017

Several theories have been proposed about the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition.

One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteenis an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

• In numerology, the number 12 is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of the clock, twelve gods of Olympus, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, the 12 successors of Muhammad in Shia Islam, twelve signs of the Zodiac, etc., whereas the number 13 was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. 
• There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having 13 people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
• Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century's The Canterbury Tales and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects.
• One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth, in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.
• In many Spanish speaking countries, the movie "Friday the 13th" was renamed to Tuesday the 13th ("Martes 13"), because it is believed to be the day of bad luck, not Friday the 13th.

Here are some more "Friday the 13th" info-tidbits from Wikipedia:

• The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia [say that 10 times fast -- yikes!]
• The 13th day of the month is slightly more likely to be a Friday than any other day of the week.
• On average, there is a Friday the 13th once every 212 days. 
• It's estimated that 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by a fear of this day -- & estimated that $800 million is lost in business on this day. 

I say FEAR NOT !!! Let's get out there and shop!