Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Short Stuff: Curse of Broken Mirrors

Transcript

Short Stuff: Curse of Broken Mirrors · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. Josh, Chuck, Jerry,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: not Dave, but still Dave. Let's go.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Didn't we do a whole episode on mirrors and maybe
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: talk about breaking mirrors.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: There's no way we didn't talk about that. But this
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: is definitely an exploded, expanded, really balloony version of that.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because we're talking about the idea that if you
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: break a mirror if you are superstitious, A lot of
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: people would say that brings you seven years of bad luck,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: and we're going to dig into why that might be.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: People have been superstitious ever since. There have been people
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: about different things and way before the mirror, and apparently
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: the Greeks were the first people to sort of just
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: start talking about a reflection because the story of Narcissus
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: falls in love with his image in the stream and
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: drowns and dies. So because of that, the Greeks are like,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: maybe seeing yourself isn't such a great thing to do.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: No, And that was Narcissus who had a tattoo, by
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the way, that's right, So yeah, it was bad luck
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: to see your reflection in water, and that was pretty
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: much the only place you could see your reflection if
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you were in ancient Greek, because it wasn't until the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: ancient Romans came along and they said, yeah, we basically
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: believe the same thing, but we're also incredibly vain, so
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: we're going to invent mirrors. And eventually the mirrors that
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: they came up with at the beginning were highly polished
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: metal surfaces. So if you had like an old shield
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: sitting around, don't throw it away. You can upcycle it
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and do a terrific mirror.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or I guess look at the reflection to see Medusa.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: If you're a clash of the Titans, wouldn't that a shield?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: How would you say the name of the person who
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: looked at their reflection in the water?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, I've always heard it as Narcissus, But I like
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: how you said it. I'm not mocking you at all here, Okay.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I didn't think you were. Okay kid, I think I
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: might be getting that pronunciation from the song from Indigo Girls.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Did they say Narcissus?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I look at like Narcissus.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: I'm quite sure that at least one or both of
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: them studied Greek mythology at Uga at some point.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Oh maybe so. And by the way, our good friend,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Lucy Waynwright just got off of tour with Indigo Girls.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Oh congratulations, Lucy, that's awesome. I think you told me that.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she had the road with him for a while,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: and her beautiful, little cute daughter was able to go
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: onto a lot of these shows, which is always fun.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: That's really cool.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, little girl on tour, that's what can be more
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: fun than that, for sure.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: And to keep everybody grounded, you know, yeah.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Like Indigo Girls aren't doing all those nasty drugs in
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: front of that girl.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: No. No, they're very well known for trashing hotel rooms too,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: and I bet that they did not trash any of
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: them because Lucy Wainwright Roach's kid.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: No, not one TV was thrown over a balcony.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Nope, where were we? We were talking about shields as
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: mirrors were the first mirrors.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: That's right. That led to, you know, the idea that
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: gods might observe their souls through these shiny reflective devices.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: So to you know, that means it has imports. So
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: to damage something like that, something like that, to be broken,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: would at first they thought of it as like just disrespectful,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: and then they said, but also maybe it would anger
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the gods and they would rain bad luck down upon
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: their heads.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And if you believe that the reflection in the mirror,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: your reflection is actually you're seeing your soul. If you
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: break a mirror, you're breaking your soul too. And so
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of ways that that can bring about misfortune. Apparently,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: one is that your soul couldn't protect your body any longer. Yeah,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: that's why all sorts of bad stuff befalls you for
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: seven years. Then also in some traditions, your soul is
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: rather upset at having been broken, and now it's looking
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: for revenge on you, and sometimes it does that in
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the form of killing one of your loved ones. Yeah,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: that's not what you want. I mean, you're already you
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: broke your very nice mirror, and now your grandma died.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Come on.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And the whole seven years thing came about apparently
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: because the Romans believed that life changes happen in seven
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: year cycles. So that's where that idea comes from, or
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: another explanation that I'm not sure about this one, but
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: apparently mirrors, you know, they were pretty expensive early on,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: and the cost of a mirror would equal seven years
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: work from.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: A servant I like both of those. Yeah they could.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Maybe both are accurate, so.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: As far as the English language goes chuck. The first
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: time anyone mentions a breaking a mirror being bad luck
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: was from seventeen seventy seven, where the author mentions that
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: breaking a mirror is a very unlucky accident because mirrors
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: were part of an ancient kind of divination formerly used
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: by magicians and their superstitious and diabolical operations.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: That's right. And because it became a thing in print,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: it became a thing in British culture, and uh yeah,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: so all of a sudden, people all over the world
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: are not wanting to break their mirrors anymore.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, So let's take a little break, as it were,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: and come back try to put everything together by explaining
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: what you can do to mitigate your bad luck if
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: you do break a mirror.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Stuff you should know. Stop you should I should know?
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: All right, before we broke, Josh laid down a series
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: of puns about mirror breakage. Apparently there's some things you
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: can do if you break your mirror. Apparently one of
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: the things you can do is you got to get
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: rid of those pieces. You don't want to leave a
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: broken mirror lying around. Obviously it's not a great thing
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: just to have in your house with broken glass, but
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: I think it has more to do with like, let's
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: just wash ourselves of this and get it out of
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: here as quickly as possible.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So this is based on a how Stuff Works article,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and I love how they actually are serious about telling
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: you how to throw away a broken mirror. Yeah, you'd like, say,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: both of the pieces in the trash, by wrapping them
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: in paper or placing them in a cardboard box. Yeah,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: because sharp mirror pieces can cut through a plastic bag.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: That has nothing to do with superstition. That's just good
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: household advice.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: That's right, good old fashioned house stuff works advice.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Another one this seems this automatically makes it ancient to
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: me is that you take the mirror pieces and you
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: bury them. And then what makes it even more ancient
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: is that you're better off you bury them in the
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: light of a full moon. Creepy, But it seems to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: me you'd have to do a little weighing of cost
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: benefit of keeping the mirror pieces around until a full mood.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, if you especially if you broke your
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: mirror on the new moon. Then you're keeping these unlucky
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: pieces around for a month.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know, man, No, don't know if the full
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: moon would mitigate that bad luck that you accrued over
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the month.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed, I just get rid of it unless you
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: were pretty close with maybe two days within a full moon.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: That's my rule.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I think I would go two days max too.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, I'm glad we agree on that. In
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: case we ever break a mirror together. You can also
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: grind that stuff into powder.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: If you want to take it to a party.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, take it to a party, and then the old
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: throat salt over your shoulder, over your left shoulders is
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: a great way to get rid of any bad luck
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: if you believe in that kind of thing.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Works for everything. Yeah, so we're talking mirrors, and mirrors
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: are made from glass, but glass non mirrored glass. Breaking
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: it actually is used as good luck sometimes, although it
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: can also be bad luck to Apparently in England, breaking
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: a glass as a death omen Yeah, which means people
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: would be dropping like flies around me because I break
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: glasses a lot.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you and Emily both love I break glass yep.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I think the Greeks, though, you know it can be
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: a celebratory thing, obviously at a Greek celebration to ward
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: off evil spirits or anyone who's ever been to a
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Jewish wedding, stomping on that wine glass is one of
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: the great traditions.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: And then there's other mirror superstitions too, Like the mirror
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: it's just a superstition factory apparently. Yeah, so there are
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: traditions where if somebody passes away, you cover the mirrors
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: in your house with something just to make it so
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: no one can see the reflection. And there's a few
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: reasons to do this. One is the person who's died,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: their soul is now wandering around until they're buried, and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: apparently if they see the reflection in the mirror, they
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: get sucked into the mirror and stuck there. And you
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: don't want that to happen to your poor grandma's soul.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: No, or your grandma's mirror, because apparently that would cause
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: the mirror to tarnish and maybe even turn into an
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: image of that person who is deceased.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: No imagine, Chuck, if you broke your mirror, Yeah, it
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: caused your grandma to die. You replaced the mirror, and
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: your poor grandma saw her soul saw herself in that
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: new mirror and is trapped in it. That's a lot
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: of bad luck.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and baggage, honestly, for sure. You know that's shrink territory.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Because also Grandma always just told you you weren't
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: doing anything right.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. Other people thought that demons could escape
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: through the mirror, like go from the non living world
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: into the living, and so covering a mirror if someone passes, like,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of mirror covering happening in these situations.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: For sure. There's also some marriage stuff too. In EDWARDI
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and Britain, which took place in the first decade of
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the twentieth century, if you wanted to know what your
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: future husband was going to be like, or if you'd
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: be married at all, you could sit down in front
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: of a mirror with some candle light, and if you
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: saw your husband show up in the mirror, all good.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: If a grim specter appeared, oh you would die before
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: you got married. Yeah, that doesn't necessarily mean that you
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: die at twenty or something like that. It just means
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that you might die an old, unmarried person.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. But with marriage, it could also be
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: a good thing, because apparently this superstition, after you get
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: married and you say I do, if you look into
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: a mirror and the short time after that, you will
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: be uniting your soul and it creates apparently an alternate
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: universe where the two souls can live forever together.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Very sweet.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what's sweeter?
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know, there's not much sweeter. Yeah, So I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: guess this Halloween season we would say go out, kiss
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: your mirror and take very good care of it. Don't
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: you think that's good advice.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: That's right, Or just cover that thing up if you
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: don't want to take your chances.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And of course obviously that means that the spooky
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: short stuff is out. Stuff you Should Know is a
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.