Mirror Superstitions

Mirror Mirror on the wall, which is the most ridiculous superstition of them all?

Welcome back to ‘The Confessions of a Random Blogger.” This is the first part of a series where I will be researching and discussing one superstition every month.

If you grew up in a highly superstitious family like I did, you’ll know just how ridiculous some so called superstitions can be. In fact, sometimes I think my mom just used the word ‘superstition’ as an excuse to stop me from being annoying.

“Whistling at night is bad luck you know!” “Washing your hair at night is bad luck!” “Tapping your foot is bad luck!”

Maybe I’m just bad luck?

So today, we’re going to be discussing a couple of superstitions related to mirrors. Everything from breaking them to speaking to them; we’re going through it all.

Let’s get started!

Seven Years Bad Luck

Have you ever accidentally broken a mirror and heard, “That’s seven years bad luck!”?

This superstition actually dates back to the Romans, who were extremely superstitious. The Romans believed that life renewed itself every 7 years, which would fix any difficult areas of your life- health, physical or spiritual ailments.

They also believed that mirrors were the doorway to one’s soul, and contained a certain amount of magical powers. This was because in ancient times, being able to see your reflection was considered to be a gift; and thus must have been connected to magic.

If a mirror broke and your face was the last thing reflected in it, the mirror would lose its magic and you would have to endure 7 years of bad luck (non-renewal of life) until the curse was lifted.

So basically if you broke a mirror, you would have to wait 7 years for your soul to renew in order to get rid of the bad luck. Sort of like renewing your Netflix subscription?

The inflicted bad luck was even worse if your face was reflected in the broken shards.

Broken Mirror Superstition. Seven Years Bad Luck.

But fear not! Leave it to the Romans to not only create comedically detailed superstitions, but also create comprehensive solutions to them!

There are weirdly specific ways of getting rid of this particular type of bad luck. You can take the broken shards and bury them by the moonlight; grind the mirror into a fine powder (until you can’t see your reflection anymore); or you could just wait out the 7 years and hope that ‘bad luck’ doesn’t mean death.

Or…and this one’s kind of crazy.

You could just shut up, clean up the damn glass, and move on with your life.

Bloody Mary

Bloody Mary is the apparition legend of a witch named Bloody Mary that can be conjured up by repeatedly chanting her name into a mirror in a dark room.

Bloody Mary Mirror Superstition

According to ancient folklore, young women would gaze into a mirror while holding a candle and chanting her name thirteen times. Bloody Mary would then show the young woman a reflection of her future husband’s face.

However, sometimes these young women would be shown a reflection of the Grim Reaper, which signified that the woman was destined to die before marriage.

However, as the superstition evolved, the story began to include male victims as well. Yay for gender equality!

The superstition further evolved into chanting her name into a mirror 3 times instead of 13. I guess Bloody Mary just got more busy murdering people and couldn’t wait around for that long?

In modern legend, she’ll appear in the mirror’s reflection covered in blood, or she might even reach through the mirror and choke you.

Bloody Mary

Still doesn’t stop edgy 12 year olds from playing the game at sleepovers does it?

Mirrors Facing The Bed

Legend has it that if one sleeps with a mirror facing their bed, spirits from the other side of the mirror will steal their soul while they’re sleeping.

Therefore, superstition says that there shouldn’t be mirrors anywhere near your bedroom.

However, I don’t think many people were willing to randomly change the layout of their bedrooms to accommodate a superstition, so the legend evolved into people covering their mirrors with sheets at night.

Mirror Superstitions

According to my research, I’m pretty sure that this has something to do with the fact that we’re most vulnerable at night- since we can’t defend ourselves.

It totally makes sense. Because if a mirror demon or whatever tried to steal our souls while we were awake and conscious, we would totally be able to defend ourselves.

Thank you for reading!

What do you guys think? Comment below and tell me what you think about superstitions in general? Do you think they have some sort of meaning or are they just a bunch of fictional stories passed down through generations?

Have you had any paranormal experiences with mirrors?

I don’t know…I do believe in some superstitions (we’ll talk about them in upcoming posts). However, I think some of them are just too out there to possibly be true.

I think the fact that glass mirrors and seeing one’s reflection weren’t as easily accessible in ancient times is a perfectly logical explanation as to why most people have attached so much power to their magical abilities.

But I have no idea- tell me what you think! We’ll reflect in the comment section. Okay fine I’ll stop talking now.

You can check out my last few posts here:

Until Next Time.

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