Where did the superstition come from, that the broken mirror is unfortunate?

People tend to believe in signs. A bad sign is a broken mirror, which, according to legends, brings misfortune for the next seven years. This superstition is rooted in a deep history, when our ancestors looked at their reflection in the water. It was believed that from the surface of the reservoir to a man looks his soul. If the water started to worry for some reason, it could harm the owner of the reflection.

According to ancient myths

As soon as the mirrors appeared, they were immediately endowed with an imaginary magical power. People thought that on the other side, in addition to reflection, the gods looked at them, and thereby protected them from adversity. Ancient shamans invariably used mirrors for their occult rites. And this means that the magic object was endowed with the power of prediction. People believed that the broken mirror broke the link between man and the gods and deprived him of all sorts of protection. Thus, the soul and body of a man who looked at his reflection in the shards last, were doomed to misfortune.

Belief about the seven years of bad luck

Who, for the first time, tied the belief about the seven years of misfortune to the broken mirror? They were ancient Romans who faithfully believed in the scriptures, which spoke of the seven years of renewal of the soul. Even if something terrible happened, the bad luck could not last longer than seven years. At the end of this period, the soul had the right to start life from scratch. The curse was completely removed, and the body was cleansed. The Romans believed that at the end of the severe punishment they could count on rejuvenating the body. If you could think that people were beating their household utensils intentionally, you are mistaken. This was impossible, because the mirrors were very rare, although their quality left much to be desired. Therefore, it was not difficult to break the subject by negligence.

In order to preserve scarce things

Probably someone deliberately began to cultivate the belief that a broken mirror bears a person seven years of misfortune. Such tactics forced our ancestors to be cautious and more careful about the interior subjects.

Rituals that remove the curse

Observant people immediately invented rites, which could remove damage. However, they needed to be observed exactly. The Romans are the authors of the most popular measure aimed at avoiding meeting with troubles. The unfortunate, who accidentally broke the mirror, had to collect all the fragments and bury them in damp earth at a site remote from his home, in the moonlight. During the day, looking at broken shards was forbidden, so most often they were immediately folded to each other and wrapped in cloth.

Later, this custom was added: the owner of the broken mirror could paint the fragments with a dark paint. As other measures, washing fragments in running water or crushing them into small crumbs was used so that no particle could do anything and never reflect.

Option for busy and lazy

If the unfortunate had too little time, he could avoid the scourge, leaving the fragments intact for seven hours (one for each year of bad luck), and then, with the cuckoo's battle, get rid of them. And only then each people began to add here something of their ethnic traditions. As you can see, the people themselves came up with a superstition connected with misfortune, and found for themselves several options for getting rid of it. Otherwise, life would be boring.