When a cat crosses your path.

Life in itself is a mystery. Add to it the deep-rootedbefore glass mirrors existed. The belief arose out of a
superstitions and it becomes even more complex. Youcombination of religious and economic factors.
like it or not, there are many superstitions that exist inThe first mirrors, used by the ancient Egyptians,
our society. Most of them were born to help mankindHebrews and Greeks, were made of polished metals
and were based on sound reasoning. But with time thesuch as brass, bronze, silver, and gold, and were
logic was left behind and the belief became aunbreakable. By the 6th Century B.C., the Greeks had
superstition. The perplexity is one can neither believebegun a mirror practice of divination called
them nor ignore them. Particularly those superstitionscatoptromancy, which employed shallow glass or
that predict future. Anything from a bird’s call to theearthenware bowls filled with water. A glass water
falling of utensils can alter your life.bowl was supposed to reveal the future of any
As far as superstitions go, fear of a black cat crossingperson who cast his or her image on the reflective
one's path is of relatively recent origin. It is alsosurface. If one of these mirrors slipped and broke, the
contrary to the revered place once held by the cat inseer's interpretation was that either the person holding
Egypt, around 3000 B.C.the bowl had no future (because he or she would
During the middle ages, the dread of black cats firstsoon die) or the future held events so dreadful the
arose in England. The cat's characteristicgods were kindly sparing the person a glimpse of their
independence, willfulness and stealth, coupled with itsfate.
sudden overpopulation in major cities, contributed to itsThe Romans adopted this bad luck superstition in the
fall from grace. Alley cats were fed by poor, lonely old1st Century A.D. and added their own twist—our
ladies, and when witch hysteria struck Europe, andmodern meaning. They maintained that a person's
many of these homeless women were accused ofhealth changed in cycles of seven years. Since mirrors
practicing black magic, their cat companions (especiallyreflect a person's appearance (that is, health), a broken
black ones) were deemed guilty of witchery bymirror augured seven years of ill health and misfortune.
association.The superstition acquired a practical, economic
One popular tale from British lore illustrates the thinkingapplication in 15th Century Italy. The first breakable
of the day. In Lincolnshire in the 1560s, one moonlesssheet glass mirrors with silver-coated backing were
night a father and his son were frightened by a smallmanufactured in Venice at that time.  Being very
creature that passed across their path into a crawlcostly, they were handled with great care. Servants
space. Hurling stones into the opening, they saw anwho cleaned the mirrors were frequently and
injured black cat scurry out and limp into the adjacentemphatically warned that to break one of these
home of a woman suspected by the town of being atreasures invited seven years of a fate worse than
witch. Next day, the father and son encountered thedeath. Such effective use of the superstition served to
woman on the street. Her face was bruised, her armintensify the bad luck belief for generations of
bandaged. And she now walked with a limp. From thatEuropeans. By the time inexpensive mirrors were
day on in Lincolnshire, all black cats were suspected ofbeing manufactured in England and France in the
being witches in night disguise.mid-1600s, the broken mirror superstition was
‘Breaking a mirror’, one of the most widespreadwidespread and firmly rooted in tradition.
bad luck superstitions still in existence, originated long