Surely this airport story was a day early. It sounded like a so-easy-to-unmask April Fool’s joke. But no, apparently in the coming weeks the new incheckbalies – check-in desks – will be opened for holidaymakers. Rows 1 to 12 are open now, and, in the words of the airport’s woordvoerder – spokesman: “Eind juni wordt een muur verwijderd en installeren we rij 14 – At the end of June a wall will be removed, and we will install row 14”.

For the same reason, row 13 is also missing in planes: “Rij 13 slaan we over wegens de bijgelovigheid eigen aan de luchtvaartsector – We will skip row 13 because of the superstition that is part of the aviation sector”.

Old superstitions seem to be thriving. Take black cats. In some parts of the world they bring good luck, but for most people they bring bad. A recent local headline seems to confirm this: Zwarte katten steeds minder populair – Black cats less and less popular. The article reports that veel minder zwarte katten verlaten het asiel – far fewer black cats leave the animal shelter. On the other hand, rode katten verblijven maar kort– ginger (“red”) cats stay only a short time.

Of course colour is only fur deep, or maybe not even that, as this sooty ditty reminds us. Zeg buurman is die kat van jou – Say, neighbour, is that cat yours; Die op de schoorsteen zit – That’s sitting on the chimney; Welnee het is de mijne niet – Oh no, it isn’t mine; De mijne die is wit – Mine is white. Ask a friend for the tune.

Bijgeloof – superstition (“by-belief ”) differs from other geloof to the extent that you can pooh-pooh those who believe that the colour of a cat brings bad luck without someone biting your head off. We have moved on from killing cats for being satanic agents, though every three years in Ypres they have their Kattenstoet – Cat Parade, which involves throwing toy cats from a bell tower. (The last real one was hurled in 1930.)

The next stoet is in May 2012. You can go or je kunt je kat sturen – not turn up (“you can send your cat”).