A mirror fell off my bathroom wall a week ago and it shattered. My grandmother says it's 7 years of bad luck, but my mom says that's just superstition. Does anyone know if there's any truth to this? A couple of weird things have happened to me since then.
The number 7 comes from an ancient Judeo-Christian superstition where mirrors were considered objects that reflected the soul, so breaking them brought bad luck for the duration of a life cycle (7 years). That said, what's probably happening is that after breaking the mirror you're more attuned to the negative things that happen to you - it's called confirmation bias, and it's a real psychological phenomenon. For the past week your brain has been in "search for evidence of bad luck" mode, and that's why you notice those weird things that you'd normally overlook or that happen to just about anyone all the time anyway.
It's pure superstition, your mom is right! The whole 7 years thing comes from way back because people didn't really understand why bad stuff happened, so they connected it to whatever was in front of them. What happened to you this week would probably have happened anyway even if the mirror hadn't broken, you're just linking everything together now because you've got that idea in your head. If you're really worried about it, throw the glass in the trash, clean up the area properly and you're done - the important thing is that nobody cuts themselves!
Log into answer.
