When a year only contains a single Friday the 13th — and many years boast two or even three of the frightful occasions — it can feel sort of spookily special.
Many people will mark the day in a macabre way, by watching a horror film or perhaps scarfing a handful of candy corn, if they still have a bag of candy corn in the cupboard (and it hasn't yet expired).
But other observances do shimmer into eeky existence, right before us, and in California, which is the famous home for the fright film industry and mondo Halloween spectaculars?
The feel of a May Friday, and the only Friday the 13th in 2022, can take on October-y proportions.
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
True, the big Halloween extravaganzas, the ones that unfurl at our local theme parks, haven't all unveiled their 2022 plans, though we did recently learn that Oogie Boogie Bash will return to Disney California Adventure in Anaheim.
That said, you can find touches of autumn here and there, even on a warm spring day, if you know where to cast your gaze.
For Friday, May 13 is also National Apple Pie Day, and the apple, of course, is one of autumn's sweetest stars, especially when it comes drizzled in caramel.
If you're seeking a decadent dessert drink inspired by this idea, make for Fat Sal's, where the limited-time Caramel Apple Pie Fat Shake recently made its drizzly debut.
The not-so-terrifying, oh-so-Halloween-y treat, priced at $13.25, is available at the Hollywood and Encino shops through the end of June.
But sipping the sweet, which comes with a slice of apple pie, on National Apple Pie Day?
That feels just right, and even a little whimsical, especially as the weekend heat wave descends.
Other Friday-the-13th-ish charms are enchanting us, too.
SugarMynt Gallery, in South Pasadena, has a new art exhibit inspired by the spooky TV, books, and films of our youths, and if you're ready to road trip? The Winchester Mystery House will offer evening Flashlight Tours of the rambling manor, a tradition each and every Friday the 13th.
And if you're looking ahead while busily sewing whatever fabulous costume you'll wear later this year?
Tickets are on sale for Midsummer Scream, the giant Halloween convention landing in Long Beach in late July.
This is, as mentioned, the only Friday the 13th in 2022, and the only National Apple Pie Day, too, and the fact that they've dovetailed on one warm May day feels simultaneously fresh and frightful, like a postcard from autumn, right when we needed one.
