The number 13, believed to be unlucky, has been skipped over at a horse stable in Santa Anita Park Superstition is a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like. Dictionary Definition: Religion, Opinion or practice based on belief in luck or magic. Superstition indicates something standing above, or set up above. The earliest English uses of the word in the modern era refer critically to Catholic practices such as censing, rosaries, holy water and other practices that Protestants believed went beyond - or were set up above - their own interpretation of the New Testament practices of Christianity. From there the uses of the term expanded to include non-Christian religious practices, and beliefs that seemed unfounded or primitive in the light of modern knowledge. Many extant superstitions arose before and during the time of the Black Plague that swept over Europe. During the time of a plague, Pope Gregory I the Great made a decree for people to say "God bless you" when somebody sneezed; this was said to prevent the spread of the disease and to cure whoever already had it.[1]