Breaking a Mirror

Recorded English folk belief

This account does not specify seven years of bad luck. It records death and family ruin, so those meanings should not be merged into a single rule.

William Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, new edition (1879), Life and Death of Man; Sussex list of death omens, paragraph beginning “The following list of death omens”

A recorded Sussex belief that breaking a looking-glass foretells a death.

Sources1 source

Primary source

William Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, new edition (W. Satchell, Peyton and Co. for the Folk-Lore Society, 1879), 1879, Life and Death of Man; Sussex list of death omens, paragraph beginning “The following list of death omens”Records the named locality, reported belief or custom, attributed meaning and local detail stated in this entry.