Why do mirrors keep popping up in folklore e.g ouija boards, the 'candyman' myth etc?

The belief that the soul projects out of the body and into mirrors in the form of reflection underlies perhaps the most widely known mirror superstition: that breaking a mirror brings seven years' bad luck. Many believed that breaking a mirror also broke the soul of the one who broke it. The soul, so angered at being hurt, exacted seven years of bad luck in payment for such carelessness. The Romans, who were the first to make glass mirrors, attributed the seven years' bad luck to their belief that life renewed itself every seven years

The belief that the soul could be caught and trapped in a mirror appears in many other ways. The peoples of northern India considered it dangerous to look into a mirror that belonged to someone else.

Bloody Mary (really more of an Urban Legend than true folklore) is a spirit woman who appears if you say her name three times in the bathroom mirror and scratches your eyes out.

Ouija boards are a load of bull. Well my cousins' was anyway. I used one with my cousin at her house and nothing happened. I ended up getting so bored I moved the pointer thing, and she STILL thinks she contacted a ghost. lol. Maybe she had a faulty one. I do believe in them though. Reading all the stories about what has happened because of them though, I will probably never touch one again. I probably shouldn't have answered this. Now I'm freaked out and its thundering & raining. I'm gonna go get my dog. Hahah I'm such a scaredy cat about the supernatural :P The only reason we had used a Ouija board was because her mom had when she was 15. Her mom and her friend had used it, and put a rosary on the board. They asked a question (don't remember what) and the board turned blood red and the rosary turned black and flew off the board :| That story scared me silly. I remember one time, once again, at my cousins house (I used to go there a LOT when I was 10 & 11) I sneezed, and somebody in a hoarse voice said "Bless you". We were the only ones up and I was sitting right next to her, so I would've known if she had said it. Besides, her voice wasn't hoarse. Maybe we had contacted a ghost or a demon it just didn't say anything.

I think it gets back to primitives.Or sympathetic magic .

I think Freud would say that to look in the mirror is to confront our own self image that is why there is such a fear of breaking mirrors .

Placing the broken pieces in a running stream carries away the bad luck presumably. I think the seven years bad luck comes in because it takes seven years for us to completely change all the cells in our body so then we are completely different so the curse of bad luck is lifted .

Don't you think its interesting that the ancient were able to discern the Length of time that must elapse , but you ll find this in old wisdom many times Science just catches up .

perhaps science should start with folklore to question Hypothesis

Some say the reflection we see in a mirror is the 'other' world where souls dwell - and when my daughter died it was easy to look into a mirror and imagine that she was just out of sight in the next room. I'm not the first to think this - I talked about it with other people who had lost loved ones and they said they felt the same. It's easy to imagine that the reflections we see in other shiny objects (water, for example) are also portals to this 'other' world so - for as long as there are reflections - we can believe the 'other' world continues to exist...

Checked thru some of the other answers and agree with the "portal" theory.

The ancient practice of "scrying" was I think attributed to the ancient Greek soothsayers who used mirrors in much the same way as crystal gazers to access and contact the spirit world. It's certainly quite spooky to sit in front of a mirror with a lit candle on each side and simply stare at your own image......you're right not to meddle with this without knowing what you are doing, it falls into the same area as mucking around with an ouija board just for kicks.

I am superstitious but the odd thing "not with mirrors" and I think the reason being as a child in the war days the Germans dropped two huge land mines near our house, the first explosion dislodged a giant mirror on a large chest of drawers, it was black dark in my room and as I jumped out of bed the second explosion sent it crashing over my head, and as I dashed out f the room I received a tiny cut on my little toe,considering what happend I was unscathed yet there was glass everywhere!

The answer I think is

In the middle ages only the rich could afford mirrors and they were highly polished silver gilt. The legends have stemmed from that. Snow white, mirror mirror on the wall etc.

Where as in Greek mythology Narcissus looked into a pool and fell in love with his reflection - be careful

Mirrors hold pwoers and open doorways to the soul if you want them too.

Also it is said that your soul leaves the body when you sleep and if you have a mirror place reflecting over your bed that your soul will see it's self and be frightened to leave therefore you feel unrested and don't deep sleep.

Also magic mirrors under your pillow have costs two people their lives they were put to death for witch craft practice - it is a ritual of some kind but not sure of all the details.

Magic Mirrors and there uses vary and are world wide! and always have been some people use them as they would a crystal ball....

Don't know if this is true but I reckon it could be something to do with looking into a different world when you look at one. What I mean is that looking into a mirror is the closest that we can get to being where we are BUT things COULD be different in a different reality/opposite reality!

For example in real life you could be have no money but in the mirror you could be rich!

Er....actually I don't know if this makes sense but I kinda know what I mean (if that helps!).

it was a tradition i my family to bring a deceased loved one home before a burial and we always had to cover any mirrors in the house with black cloth i was led to believe that this was because the departed spirit could get caught in the reflection and not be able to pass into the next world, this is probably why mirrors are in horror film as most of these portray a lost or evil spirit living in the mirror or being able to come into this world through the mirror glass using it as a portal. i come from a family of psychics so its believable for me