From lucky pennies to four-leaf clovers, Canadians believe in a variety of superstitions and a new poll is revealing which ones topped the list.
Entertainment site CanadaCasino.ca conducted a study to determine the most commonly researched superstitions in Canada.
The study analyzed search volumes for over 235 terms and phrases related to popular superstitions.
Friday the 13th topped the list with nearly 278,000 Google searches conducted by Canadians every year.
CanadaCasino says there’s numerous theories that exist regarding the origin of the superstition, including one theory that combines two superstitions: the fear of the number 13 and the belief that Friday is an unlucky day.
In addition, Friday the 13th was also the most common superstition in all provinces across Canada.
In second place comes 666 with over 173,160 searches dedicated to searching it every year. The entertainment site says 666 is often associated with spirituality and fears in western culture, and in the biblical context it refers to the “number of the beast” and is associated with an evil figure.
Fingers crossed comes in third place with 120,720 Canadians looking up the belief each year. The gesture is often used to express hope or good luck.
The other superstitions that made the top 10 most searched by Canadians include:
4. Knocking on wood (52,560)
5. Break a leg (47,520)
6. Itchy palms (9,360)
7. Lucky pennies (8,760)
8. Rabbit’s foot (8,040)
9. Four-leaf clover (7,680)
10. Lucky horseshoe (5,160)
The study also highlighted which regions in Canada are the most superstitious based on annual search demand per 10,000 of the population. Yukon topped the list with a notable ratio of over 1,670 Google searches per 10,000 people. In Yukon, the most searched superstitions are Friday the 13th, four leaf clovers and knocking on wood.
Northwest Territories and Nunavut came in second and third place with a ratio of 1,432 and 1,302, respectively.
Ontario ranked in 11th place with only 225 searches for every 10,000 people. Meanwhile, Quebec ranked in last place with 139 superstition-related Google searches for every 10,000 people.
For the study, CanadaCasino pulled together a seed list of 30 popular superstitions, and then the monthly Google search volumes were then calculated for Canada and for each region: meaning, origin, lucky, bad luck, myth and omen.
