Has it ever occurred to you-?
WHY' IT IS UNLUCKY' TO BREAK A
MIRROR
Many Europeans and Americans believe—and believe quite seriously—that it is most unlucky to break a looking-glass. When the mirror crashes to the ground and is shattered into a billion minute fragments they groan loudly and say—“ There’s another seven years’ bad luck.” But they can seldom give ’a reason for their dismay. The original holders of the belief, however, had a very definite reason. Primitive peoples are extremely superstitious about their magic and religion. Some are quite convinced that part of-a man’s soul can easily fall into the hands of an enemy. Then the man will fall ill and slowly waste away unless the “soul substance” is recovered by magic.
It is easy to see how the savage imagined that the reflection in a mirror was in some way part of the soul. He naturally concluded .that to break the mirror upon which the shadow of man was cast was to injure the soul or even life itself, for who knows —some evil spirit might be lurking’ around, ready to grasp a fragment of “soul substance”!
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19300625.2.61
Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 21118, 25 June 1930, Page 6
Word Count
190Has it ever occurred to you-? Southland Times, Issue 21118, 25 June 1930, Page 6
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Southland Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in