March 13 is Coming: Open an Umbrella Indoors Day

Well, this is the year to ward off bad luck. Not only can we celebrate Friday the 13th by opening up black umbrellas indoors, but I now find that--UNRELATED to it being Friday--March 13 has been celebrated at National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day, with much of the same concern for all the care one must take with umbrellas:

According to some, it's only considered bad if any of the following apply:

• The umbrella was a gift.
  
• The umbrella is black.
  
• The umbrella has never been used outdoors.
  
• There is a sick person in the house.

Other bad luck umbrella superstitions:

• Never give an umbrella as a gift.
  
• Never pick up an umbrella you dropped (ask someone to do it for you).
  
• Never place your umbrella on a table or a bed.
  
• If a single woman drops her umbrella, she'll never marry.

Trying to run down the origin of this and am now finding that the Dull Men's Club thinks all of March is Umbrella Month:

March is the month to honor one of the most versatile and underrated inventions of the human race. The month is dedicated to the use of and conversations about umbrellas. If you belong to a Dull Men’s Club in your community, have umbrellas as a discussion topic for one of your meetings this month.

But, cannot find out anything more! Let us get to the root of this one.

Ready for Friday the 13th? Opening Your Black Umbrella Indoors

After decades of being away from the scene, London's Eccentric Club is bringing back Friday the 13th with the "Annual Friday the 13th Dinner," allegedly held since 1780s--the traditional superstition-defying bad-luck-omen-denying Annual Dinner of men of reason and science. The Club intends to follow most of the traditions of the dinner, where all guests arriving would have to go under a ladder, look into a broken mirror, spill salt, open a black umbrella indoors, etc.

This Friday the 13th tradition has also been carried over the ocean, as can be seen from this scene at the 2007 Hollywood Friday the 13th Club dinner. Now, there is certainly a superstition about black cats and "opening an umbrella indoors" is considered bad luck, but I am not sure why we have to break the curse by using just black umbrellas?!

Now, another superstition is new to me: "Dropping an umbrella on the floor means that there will be a murder in the house." So be extra careful out there when you open your umbrellas indoors on Friday!

And here are more superstitions about umbrellas:

• It is bad luck to give an umbrella as a gift.
• If you drop an umbrella, do not pick it up. Instead, have someone else do it for you, or you will be the recipient of bad luck.
• If a single woman drops an umbrella, she will never marry.
• If an umbrella is opened outside when it is not needed, rain, and other bad weather, will follow.

In Honor of Mardi Gras: The Second Line Umbrella

So Mardi Gras was yesterday. I know I have always seen colorful umbrellas in the parade photos or video, but I never knew the story. There may be more to "second line umbrellas" than I have found out, but one story is told at "Born of Necessity":
The Origins of the Second Line Umbrella....:

In the south the idea of carrying an umbrella for shade, just sort of just caught on! Hey! It was a great idea. The Southern Bells, who would dress in their finery, each Sunday, started to always carry an umbrella to provide instant shade to them when necessary. It made a great accessory, and in the 1840's, the umbrella started showing up in catalogs as accessories to the bells' Sunday dress. In any other place in the United States that would be the end of it, but here in Louisiana, it became a southern idea that would evolve into a Mardi Gras tradition.