It’s a measure of how regimented my life has become. The 9-2-5 workday is ruled by the calendar in a way teaching wasn’t. But on this, the second Friday the 13th of 2026 I figured I’d reveal something that only repetitive calendar watching taught me. It’s so simple many children probably know it, but it is something that being a drone taught me. Ready? Unless it’s a leap year, the dates in March are the same as they are in February. Mathematically (and I don’t think that way) this makes perfect sense. February’s 28 days are evenly divisible by seven, something that isn’t true of either 30 or 31. That means in three years out of four, March begins on the same day of the month that February does. So if February has a Friday the 13th, so does March.
Photo credit: Andreas F. Borchert, Wikicommons
" data-orig-size="409,600" sizes="(max-width: 409px) 100vw, 409px" data-image-title="409px-Kilbennan_St._Benin’s_Church_Window_St._Patrick_Detail_2010_09_16" data-orig-file="https://steveawiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/409px-kilbennan_st-_benins_church_window_st-_patrick_detail_2010_09_16.jpg" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" width="409" data-medium-file="https://steveawiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/409px-kilbennan_st-_benins_church_window_st-_patrick_detail_2010_09_16.jpg?w=205" data-permalink="https://steveawiggins.com/2014/03/17/wee-people/409px-kilbennan_st-_benins_church_window_st-_patrick_detail_2010_09_16/#main" alt="" height="600" srcset="https://steveawiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/409px-kilbennan_st-_benins_church_window_st-_patrick_detail_2010_09_16.jpg 409w, https://steveawiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/409px-kilbennan_st-_benins_church_window_st-_patrick_detail_2010_09_16.jpg?w=102&h;=150 102w, https://steveawiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/409px-kilbennan_st-_benins_church_window_st-_patrick_detail_2010_09_16.jpg?w=205&h;=300 205w" class="wp-image-7068" data-large-file="https://steveawiggins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/409px-kilbennan_st-_benins_church_window_st-_patrick_detail_2010_09_16.jpg?w=409" />Photo credit: Andreas F. Borchert, WikicommonsI’ve confessed to being interested in holidays and significant dates. Last month we had Friday the 13th before St. Valentine’s Day on the 14th, and the following Monday, the 16th, was Presidents Day. A special long weekend. This kind of syzygy always catches my attention. I knew even then, however, that Friday the 13th would recur in March. The only extenuation, in this case, is that St. Patrick’s Day is on Tuesday. Now, I have some Irish ancestry and Tuesday always vexes me a bit. Well, the coming Tuesday, I mean. Green isn’t really my color. I have a green sweater that doesn’t really fit anymore, but I try to wear it just about every year. (I’ve had it since high school. I can still fit into my college clothes—those that I still have, but alas, nothing green.) I keep clothes until they literally wear out. I can’t donate them because they’re rags by the time I’m done wearing them. I grew up poor and that shows.
So here I am on Friday the 13th wondering if I should buy something green to wear on Tuesday. You see, I take holidays seriously. One of my unpublished books was about holidays. I ended up using some of it in The Wicker Man, but May Day is still a ways off at this point. Friday the 13th isn’t really a holiday, except for horror fans. I’ve only seen the first two movies in the franchise—slashers have never been my favorites. So this is just another Friday at work for me. It feels sort of like the movie Groundhog Day. The calendar just keeps telling me it’s a work day. But at least on Tuesday I’ll be wearing green. And if I decide to act on my impulse, contrary to my usual practice, and spend money on a sweater instead of books, maybe it’ll even be something new.
