On 15/09/2011 09:12 PM, Warp wrote:
> Alain<aze### [at] qwertyorg>  wrote:
>> Back then, when the novels were writen, mirrors had a silver and mercury
>> reflective coating. Sime mercury was placed on the glass, then a foil of
>> silver was spread over it. The whole was then compressed in a stack with
>> felt cushions for something like 7 years. (the origin of the 7 years bad
>> luck for breaking a mirror, also the price as a commoner would need to
>> save for about 7 years to be able to buy one) Over 60% of the mirrors
>> ended up broken and unusable after that.
>
>    I'm not saying I doubt that, but I have seen so many urban legends that
> this kind of thing immediately tingles my BS detector. I would love to see
> some credible reference to this. :)

I can find plenty of references to the idea that your reflection is a 
representation of your "soul", and breaking it is therefore bad luck. 
And the Romans believed that every seven years the soul was renewed.

Or that mirrors used to be extremely expensive, so if you broke 
somebody's mirror, you might have to work for them for seven years to 
repay them for it.

But basically every Google result claims that the true origins are "vague".

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