Where does the myths about breaking mirrors causing bad luck come from?

Question

I know alot are just past down from generation to generation. But where do all these myths about bad luck originate from. and what are some good or weird ones you've heard.

Answer 1

Here's what I found on Google:

Mirrors are thought to have two supernatural abilities:

They bring bad luck
The help tell the future
Before mirrors came along, any reflective surface was considered to be magical and credited with the ability to look into the future. In ancient mythology we can often find the gods and goddesses, as well as mere mortals, looking into the still water to catch a glimpse of their fate. The power of reflective surfaces to captivate and deceive are also featured strongly in such myths as Narcissus and Snow White. Reflective surfaces like shiny metals and mirrors were also used to receive messages from the gods.

Queen Elizabeth's court magician and well-known alchemist, John Dee, used a mirror for scrying. He has been credited with prophesying the plot to kill King James in 1605.

Because mirrors were thought to hold the key to the future, to break one was to shatter your own future. One of the techniques devised to reverse the bad luck was to bury all the pieces deep within the earth. Another superstition for breaking a mirror was that shortly thereafter a family member would die.

Other Mirror Superstitions:

To see your reflection in a mirror is to see your own soul, which is why a vampire, who are without a soul, have no reflection.
If a couple first catch sight of each other in a mirror, they will have a happy marriage.
If a mirror falls and breaks by itself, someone in the house will soon die.
Any mirrors in a room where someone has recently died, must be covered so that the dead person's soul does not get trapped behind the glass. Superstition has it that the Devil invented mirrors for this very purpose.
It is bad luck to see your face in a mirror when sitting by candlelight.
Before mirrors, in ancient societies, if you caught sight of your reflection or dreamt of it, you would soon die.
Someone seeing their reflection in a room where someone has recently died, will soon die themselves.
Babies should not look into a mirror for the first year of their lives.
Actors believe that it is bad luck to see their reflection while looking over the shoulder of another person.
To see an image of her future husband, a woman is told to eat an apple while sitting in front of a mirror and then brush her hair. An image of the man will appear behind her shoulder.

Answer 2

In the past, mirrors weren't made of 'silvered glass' but of 'highly polished metal' ... and the myth about 'breaking a mirror and having seven years bad luck comes from that time ... but HOW could you 'break' a mirror if it was made from METAL?
It's like the myth that walking 'under a ladder' will give you bad luck ... of course it will, because you could get 'paint' or stone pieces dropped on you while you are walking under it, or could 'misjudge height' and hit yourself on the head hard enough to 'concuss you.'
Or how about having a 'black cat' cross your path? I know that 'black cats' are most often portrayed as being 'witches famliars' ... but it is actually the COLOR of the cat that matters here ... you can't SEE a black cat when you are walking at night ... if you 'trip over it' and fall you could definitely say it was 'bad luck' because you may not 'realize' you just tripped over a cat!

Answer 3

This will bring you 7 years of bad luck or might cause the death of someone in the family. If a mirror is broken, remove it from the house and, if possible, bury it in the ground (to counteract the evil consequences).


Origin. Before the invention of mirrors, man gazed at his reflection, his "other self," in pools, ponds, and lakes. If the image was distorted, it was a mark of impending disaster. The "unbreakable" metal mirrors of the early Egyptians and Greeks were valued items because of their magical properties. After glass mirrors were introduced, it was the Romans who tagged the broken mirror a sign of bad luck. The length of the prescribed misfortune, 7 years, came from the Roman belief that man's body was physically rejuvenated every 7 years, and he became, in effect, a new man.

Answer 4

The closes time that all people can agree on is medieval time.... And the broken mirror superstition came about so that the maids and other servents would handle their master thing with more care and not break item that were exspensive in those days like a mirror etc.................... And for what ever reasons that superstition just stuck it does not matter if it was never true... Some how is has stuck with people thru out the ages..................................................................

Answer 5

Probably because several unlucky people who broke mirrors bled to death from cuts received from the glass. Much like a black cat crossing your path is unlucky since you can't see it at night and could trip, or walking under ladders is unlucky because the person at the top of the ladder has a lot to focus on and is likely to drop things and cause an injury.

Answer 6

Mirrors used to be expensive and it took seven years to save up enough money to buy another one?

My grandfather believed that a woman must never step over any root crop growing in the ground because it would then have cracks in it. Wonder where that one came from? Wonder if a man stepped over it, there would be strange growths?

Answer 7

the saying of seven years bad luck comes from the reckoning of the seven ages of man......also the fact that glass cost so much to make.....with the old coating of mercury....aswell that made it bad luck to break

Answer 8

Pretty much like what "Go_veg7" and "catzrme" said, but no one knows for sure.

I have always heard that it was because ancient man saw his reflection in water, and when the water became distorted (with wind or something), it was feared that it meant disaster was coming. They believed that their image was a part of themselves, and seeing themselves be broken like that had to be bad luck.

I have a whole book of superstitions called "Cross Your Fingers, Spit In Your Hat" by Alvin Schwartz. (Which I highly suggest you get if you are interested in superstitions). It tells you what the superstition is, how it came to be, and what to do about it. 133 pages of plenty of interesting or weird superstitions about Love & Marriage, Household, Food & Drink, School, Work, Money, Travel, Weather, Death, etc.

Here it is on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0397315309/ref=dp_olp_1/105-6792471-1102048
They have 26 new and used from $0.01.

According to the book:
"If you break a mirror, it means seven years of bad luck, and for good reason.
When early man saw his reflection in a pond or lake, he thought what he saw was a part of him. And when the wind rippled the water and shattered his image, he was sure he would have trouble. This is how men later felt when they broke a mirror that once held their image.
But if this happens to you, there are ways to protect yourself.
One is to wait seven hours before you remove the pieces. Another is to throw them in a deep, swiftly moving river where people do not swim. Another is to bury them in a graveyard at midnight when there is no moon and no stars."
(Page 32)

I actually just broke a full length mirror a couple weeks ago. I asked about it on here and someone told me to walk backwards around the place where it fell 7 times and that will "reverse" the bad luck. I did that and I think it worked! My boyfriend proposed to me just a couple days later! :-)
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Atls8_kDmfF7iNo2kUPcR4nsy6IX?qid=20070715105937AAJp4FK

To answer the next part of your question, all the myths and superstitions about bad luck originate in different places from different cultures, religions, places, and time periods. Some contradict each other, some don't. And some just have different twists on exactly what causes the bad luck and how to deal with it.

For example, in Chinese culture, the number 4 signals TERRIBLE luck because the number four sounds just like the word for "death". It is like the American equivalent of the number 13.

Some superstitions arise from religions. Like in many religions, the symbol of life is a triangle (could also represent Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit). When a ladder rested against a wall, it formed the symbol, and if someone walked under the ladder, he broke the triangle and it "disrupted life and invited the worst kind of trouble".

The most well-known superstition of course is the "salt over your shoulder" one. People think it's stupid, but it actually started with very good reason:
According to the book:
"At one time, man depended on salt to keep his food from spoiling and to keep himself alive. When he wasted salt, he saw it as a sign that evil spirits were about.
To protect himself, he threw a pinch over his left shoulder, for it was on the left that these spirits lurked. Since salt defended him against death, he reasoned, it was defend him against evil."

Answer 9

somebody broke a mirrior had bad luck blamed it on the broken mirrior told everyone who would listen thereby starting the myth