How did the superstition about broken mirrors appear and why did it turn out to be so tenacious

Although we live in the modern world, where most phenomena can be explained from the point of view of science, superstitions are not going to give up their positions. It is impossible to list them all – in every country you can make a real encyclopedia of beliefs and prejudices. But there are also universal ones among them, known all over the world. One of these superstitions is the belief that a broken mirror brings bad luck.

The superstition associated with the mirror is one of the most ancient on the planet and its history can be traced back 2.5 millennia. Even the ancient Romans and Greeks firmly believed that a person who broke a mirror would not see good luck for exactly seven years. Already in the ancient world, mirrors were considered mystical objects, connecting the world of people and the world of spirits. Reflections in mirrors were endowed with magical properties and were sure that by causing damage to them, you can harm a person.

Even before the appearance of mirrors, the Greeks believed that the reflection of a person in the water exposes his soul and makes it defenseless before magic. The Romans, who made the first mirrors from bronze, claimed that through them the gods monitor the life of a person, as through a window. Therefore, it was believed that the mirror belongs not only to a person, but also to higher forces and its damage could anger the deity.

In the 3rd century AD, mirrors began to be made of glass and therefore they began to be beaten much more often. But the Romans believed that bad luck could not last forever, even after such a serious offense, since in their concepts a person was completely renewed physically and spiritually in seven years. This somewhat calmed the careless citizens of Rome, who had a chance to turn the wheel of fortune in their direction after years of misfortune.

The superstition associated with mirrors turned out to be incredibly tenacious and has reached our days. Scientists believe that this is due to the fact that this is not a completely useless and stupid belief, because the fear of misfortunes forced to handle mirrors as delicately as possible. Mirrors have been very expensive items for thousands of years, and people are known to be impulsive.

It is difficult to say how many mirrors remained intact just because their owner did not dare to raise his hand to them, seeing something in the glass that he did not like. Superstitions are false beliefs that can cause feelings of guilt or just anxiety. But some of them make us feel responsible for unseemly and simply reckless actions, which relieves stress.

One common sense is sometimes not enough to protect the mirror from anger, but the ancient mechanism of superstition works, as it did 2.5 thousand years ago. In Russia, there were a lot of other beliefs associated with mirrors, some of which we have safely forgotten.