How to Avoid 7 Years of Bad Luck?

So this weekend April and I went for a drive and we decided on a very cold weekend to not hike, but drive in search of something interesting. Taking a drive is good because it’s stayin warm and socially distant until we are done with this Coronavirus Pandemic. So we made our coffee at home and jumped in the car. I didn’t really tell April where or what we were doing, but I wanted to go take a pic of the Shroud House  aka the home of the Jersey Devil in Leeds Point, Atlantic County. There is a lot of dispute as to the actual birthplace of the “JD” but many ago with Shroud House.

After I got my picture we drove around a bit more and just taking in the scenery near Smithville. We ran into some folks feeding the local bird flock, and the geese and ducks were very appreciative of their kindness, especially during winter.

I enjoy seeing local history and to be honest local graveyards are “history”. Be sure to be respectful and I never take my camera into a cemetery if I see mourners. This particular one was empty and I wanted to see what kind of dates were on these tombstones because they looked OLD. Indeed they were some dating back to the mid 1850’s, with some of these people born in the late 1700’s.....that’s history!

So now onto the intriguing part of this adventure. One of the Tombstones, Reverend Richard Leeds, who was born in 1774.....had an interesting item. At the bottom of the stone was a small piece of broken mirror leaning against the stone. It caught my attention and you can see it in the photo above. Upon getting home I did some investigating and wondered what it means to see glass at the bottom of the stone. It turns out that this practice is done to avoid seven years bad luck. So if you break a mirror you are supposed to lean a broken piece against a tombstone. Odd but that’s the answer I got to this question. Seven years is a long time for bad luck so I guess it’s worth the effort, obviously someone who is worried was out in this cemetery trying to avoid a curse. Maybe ridiculous maybe not you decide and I will try not to break any mirrors, walk under ladders, cross black cats, upset local witches, etc. etc.

Have YOU heard of this old folklore? Have you ever left glass in a cemetery? Love to hear your stories. Enjoy some of the pics from our weekend drive :)