Mirror, Mirror On the Wall

What an unusual superstition. While corresponding with Patti, another adoptive parent from Astrakhan, Russia, I was told that she was made aware of an unusual superstition that the director of Baby Home #2 supposedly follows. That is, to not allow the baby to see himself/herself in the mirror before one year of age. Hmmm.....I never heard of that! After some research I found that some cultures believe that a baby who looks into a mirror during the first year of its life will die. I am not sure of the origin of this superstition, but I am willing to bet that it has something to do with the belief that the mirror is related to one's soul. (The reason why vampires do not see themselves in the mirror is because they lack a soul). Thinking further about this, I was struck by the symbolism of this superstition in Snow White in which the "fairest of all" was the good, innocent Snow White while the "not so fair" was Snow White's evil, jealous step-mother. And all of this was determined by the magical mirror who must have been reading their souls. Anyway, I found this all quite interesting and discovered various other mirror superstitions in my search. Click this link for more information.