Covering mirrors after a death
Covering mirrors after a death is a mourning custom in Jewish homes during shiva and in some Chinese families, and Brand recorded it in Orkney in the 1800s. The covered glass marks the house as one in mourning.
What it may mean
A covered mirror changes a house at a glance. A visitor who steps into a hallway and sees a sheet over the glass knows, without a word, that this is a home in mourning, and lowers their voice. In Jewish homes sitting shiva, as an entry in a university folklore archive describes, mirrors are covered for the seven days after the funeral while mourners sit low and do no work. A student from a Chinese family remembered a mother covering every mirror in the house, the bathroom one included, for months after a grandfather died. Grief often needs exactly this: a set time and a sign others can read, so that nobody expects ordinary life just yet. The cloth comes off at the end, and that matters too. A covered mirror is a way of saying: for now, this house is not itself.
Depending on how you saw it
A sheet over the bathroom mirror
One student remembered getting dressed for school in sixth grade without a mirror for months, because the family's mirrors had all been covered after a grandfather's death. Which daily routine did a loss interrupt for you, and how did you manage?
During shiva
For the seven days of shiva, a group gathers at the house for prayers twice a day, friends drop by and neighbors prepare the first meal after the funeral, which often includes hard-boiled eggs. Who brought food or sat with you when you could not do much yourself?
Taking the cloth off
Every covered mirror is eventually uncovered, on a set day or when the family feels able, and the house looks like itself again. How do you know when a hard season is ready to end?
Why it happens in nature
In Jewish homes sitting shiva, wall mirrors are covered for the seven days of mourning, alongside other signs such as low seats and torn garments. Some Chinese families cover or remove mirrors while the body is in the house and through a mourning period. The cloth marks the home as one in mourning and draws attention away from appearances.
What folk beliefs say
Jewish tradition
Immediately after the funeral of a close relative, Jewish families sit shiva for seven days, and all household wall mirrors are covered with sheets.
Source: Adam Schall (collector), Folk Ritual – Jewish (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2011), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
Chinese family tradition
When a student's grandfather died, the student's mother covered all the mirrors in the house with bedsheets for months; the collector notes the Chinese belief that seeing the casket reflected in a mirror brings misfortune.
Source: mrkashya (collector), Funeral Tradition: Removing Mirrors from the House (USC Digital Folklore Archive) (2024), folklore.usc.edu. View the page
Scotland (Orkney)
In Orkney, a writer quoted by Brand noted, people locked up all the cats of the house and covered all the looking-glasses as soon as anyone died, though they could give no reason for it.
Source: John Brand; Henry Ellis (ed.), Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 2 (1849), vol. 2, p. 232. View the page
Bohemia (Czech lands)
In Bohemia, a 1903 collection says, when anyone was dying the looking-glass was taken away, or it would grow dim.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 1 (1903), vol. 1, p. 163. View the page
To reflect on
When you are grieving, what signs help those around you to tread gently?