Origins of superstition part three: pennies, mirrors, and sneezes

pennyPhoto bySiora PhotographyonUnsplash

Whenever I see a penny on the ground, I immediately bend to grab it, saying the familiar, “Find a penny, pick it up, all the day you’ll have good luck.” I pocket the coin and smile, knowing something great is about to happen. If I see it on tails, I stop in my tracks. No bad luck for me, thanks.

So why do we do this? Where did this superstition come from?

Wonderopolis says, “Long ago, people also believed that there was a constant battle between the forces of good and evil.” Everything was good or bad. “Thus, one side of a coin (heads) came to be associated with good, which meant that the other side (tails) must be evil or unlucky.”

Psychic Library offers another explanation. “…the penny superstition may have evolved from a pagan ritual: See a pin and pick it up; all day long you’ll have good luck.” The found pin would be used for a good luck spell.

monkey reflectionPhoto byAndre MoutononUnsplash

Most if not all people have at some point dropped a glass or a plate without worry. But who among us has broken a mirror and been as laissez faire about it? Though we don’t believe it (we don’t believe it, right?) we worry we’ll actually get seven years of bad luck. Where did this come from?

Glasswest.com provides insight. “Mirrors and the images they reflect have long been thought to have mysterious significance. The ancient Greeks were the first to believe that one’s reflection in the water was an image of his or her soul.” Later, the Roman civilization continued and were, “the first to create mirrors from polished metal surfaces and, eventually, glass. Given the labor involved in this task, mirrors were far from commonplace, further enhancing their mystical powers.”

Not only did the Romans believe that mirrors reflected souls, “but that the gods used these images to see one’s inner identity. A broken mirror would be such a violation of this portal to the soul that a punishment from the gods was warranted.” Seven years bad luck would follow.

“The ancient Romans also believed that the body and soul renewed itself every seven years. Once this seven-year period elapsed, the cycle of bad luck would be over and a new seven-year cycle would commence.”

sneezePhoto byTowfiqu barbhuiyaonUnsplash

Are you compelled to say, “Bless you,” after a sneeze? Why do we do that? History Daily answers this question.

In the mid-500s (AD) an epidemic in Constantinople claimed 5,000 lives a day. When a new epidemic appeared in 590 in Rome, the new pope, Gregory I, offered comfort to the masses, stating a blessing would keep the sickness at bay. To wit, “on February 16, 600, he issued a papal decree ordering every good Catholic to say "God bless you" when they heard someone sneeze, which was a common early sign of the Plague.” More than 1400 years later, we’re all still saying it. Personally, I’m not going to tempt fate and stop anytime soon.