Why is mirror cover with black cloth?

Question

In Macedonia, in sorrow familly where is dead man, mirrors in that hauses are cover with black cloth. Why? Is this habit existing in anothers nacionalities, exept in Macedonians? Please, only seroiuos answer.

Answer 1

It is a customary symbol of mourning.

From the intermanet...

Covered mirrors
"The Victorians had a lot of superstitions associated with death. When there was a corpse in the house you had to cover all the mirrors," she said. "And if a mirror in your house was to fall and break by itself, it meant that someone in the home would die soon. When someone died in the house and there was a clock in the room, you had to stop the clock at the death hour or the family of the household would have bad luck. When the body was taken from the house, it had to be carried out feet first because if it was carried out head first, it could look back and beckon others to follow it into death."

Answer 2

I am spanish. When my father passed on my mother stopped all the clocks at the time of his death. Also all the mirrors were covered . This is to prevent the spirit from being trapped into the house. Another custom is to annoint the person's feet with oil or dirt for a safe journey into their next life.

Answer 3

A lot of cultures believe in covering mirrors after a death. It has something to do with the morning process, and not thinking of ones self, through vanity at a time when you are supposed to be remembering the deceased. Also woman don't wear makeup and I believe that some cultures either cover clocks as well or stop their clocks to the time of death.

Answer 4

Mirrors have always had a sort of mysticism to them. Like peering into another world that is opposite to ours. So if someone is dead in our world, they might be alive in the next. To avoid all confusion, the mirrors are covered so nobody can claim to have seen grandma's spirit.

Answer 5

This is just a gut feeling and has no other basis than what I feel.

A mirror is a tool for personal grooming, nothing else. In times of mourining, we are to think about the person that died, not ourselves. By covering the mirrors, if removes a distraction.

Answer 6

Hello dear!

This is a custom coming from the ancient times! It is a ancient Greek custom, which was developed from black pieces of cloth in the entrance of the house which eventually came to the mirrors etc. This shows another was and reason we come to associate how much the people in the area are similar and have adopted customs from the Ionians and South residents of the Hellenic Peninsula, who were first in getting into spiritual customs!

Answer 7

I did hear once that in the old south in US, they used to cover the mirrors when someone died, so the spirit do not become trap in the mirror

Answer 8

I think the Irish do it too...I believe its to stop the dead's spirit getting trapped in the mirror...the British close their curtains on the day of the funeral

Answer 9

Because in ancient times. people belived that a dead mans soul could be captured and traped on earth via a mirror. So it was done as a form of protection of the dead..........................

Answer 10

To focus on the dead person. Not ourselves.
GOD BLESS