Breaking a plate
Many plates break while the dishes are being washed, in the tired stretch after a meal when attention drifts. A crack at that moment can be a cue to bring a little more care to the endings of things, not only the main event.
What it may mean
Dinner went well. The guests have gone, the music is off and you are at the sink, half listening to a podcast, when a wet plate slips and splits on the floor. That timing is typical. Accidents gather in the tired stretch after the important part is over, when care relaxes because nothing seems to be at stake. Cleanup is still part of the event. The same pattern shows up far from the kitchen: the careless email sent after a big presentation, the snappy remark on the last day of a long vacation, the wrong turn in the last mile of a trip. A broken plate can be a nudge to give endings some of the attention you gave beginnings.
Depending on how you saw it
A plate that breaks in the sink
Plates knock against each other and the faucet in a crowded sink, and an old chip on the rim is often where the next break starts. Old damage decides where new damage goes. Which small chip (an old grudge, a long-ignored repair) is weakening something you use every day?
Losing a plate from a set you love
Losing one plate from a set you treasure can sting more than its price. Suddenly there are seven where there were eight. What would it take to love the set as it is now, a little smaller and still in daily use?
A tall stack carried in one trip
A tall stack of plates carried in one go is the classic way to lose the bottom one. The weight was fine; the balance was not. What are you carrying in one big stack that would be safer in two trips?
Why it happens in nature
Ceramic plates are hard but brittle, so they shatter rather than bend when they hit a hard floor or the edge of a sink. Chips along the rim weaken a plate and often become the starting point of the next break. Wet, soapy hands and crowded drying racks are the most common culprits in a busy kitchen.
What folk beliefs say
China
In China, if anything ominous happened while a marriage was being arranged, such as the breaking of a bowl, the match was broken off or set aside.
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. 96. View the page
Belgium
In Belgium, a maidservant hired on a Friday was expected to break the china.
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. 491. View the page
Suriname
In Suriname, servants who killed a spider were said to be bound to break the dishes.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 701. View the page
To reflect on
Which of your endings gets far less care than the beginning did?