Travel Help

Moving home is always a bit of a hassle, and I say that as someone who has done it a good number of times and with mixed results.

My worst ever move was when I had to transport all of my stuff from South London to the North of the city and decided to do it by Tube. That was a terrible idea which involved spending all weekend going back and forward on the Northern and Piccadilly Lines and bashing a few of my prized possessions along the way.

The idea of moving house can be stressful enough to put us off the idea of the switch before we even get started. The potential for problems is well known and is why it has been one of the staples of sit coms ever since Frank Spencer fell out of his removals van.

Of course, the most fragile household objects are the ones we most need to protect, and among those we definitely need to count the mirrors. This isn’t just because it is believed to be bad luck to break one, but because they can also be pretty expensive items. Anyway, the bad luck idea is a bit more interesting than the cost issue, so let’s take a look at it.

7 Years or not?

Actually, the original version of this superstition is that if you break a mirror then part of your soul will be destroyed. This is because it was believed that mirrors captured part of people’s souls. So it’s all bad news then? Well, the relatively good part is that the belief was that our soul gets renewed every 7 years. This means that unless you are really unlucky and break the mirror just after having your soul renewed then you only need to wait less than 7 years to get a new one. Hey, does it sound as though I am starting to believe this stuff?

Is Your Soul Really in the Mirror?

You may well ask how your soul can be trapped in the bathroom mirror cabinet if your reflection isn’t in it at the time, and you would be quite right to ask this. The superstition actually says that you need to be reflected in the mirror at the time it breaks in order for the bad luck to happen. So if the mirror is in a badly packed removals van and you are having a nervous breakdown in the kitchen trying to pack your dishes then there is no curse. I am hoping that this also covers me for the mirror I broke in my backpack while carrying it up the stairs at Turnpike Lane station.

So Where Does This Leave Us?

Well, it seems that packing a mirror badly is unlikely to ruin the next 7 years of your life after all. That takes us back to the point about the cost and inconvenience of replacing it then. It might not be as exciting as the thought of having a piece of your soul destroyed but it would certainly be a blooming nuisance, wouldn’t it?

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