To wash or not to wash: where did the ban on washing floors come from in the evening

Most superstitions in one way or another carry (or carried) within themselves a grain of rational knowledge. Does this relate to a ban on mopping in the evening? Now we find out.

Superstition about evening mopping

After sunset, many superstitions recommend that you do not take any cleaning actions, and especially do not touch the floor - do not wash it and do not sweep it. The punishment for violating this prohibition can be very different - from poverty and debt to loss of love. Now this superstition is usually explained by pulling together the good energy of the day and the bad energy of the night - they say that at night all cleaning actions will allow evil spirits to penetrate your home. But where do the legs of this omen come from?

Surely many of the readers heard this saying: "Do not take dirty linen from the house." In fact, initially it did not refer to family problems, but to the most banal and prosaic garbage. The whole proverb sounded like this: "Do not take the rubbish out of the hut at night." And this was not superstition, but quite rational advice. Indeed, at a time when electric lighting had not yet been invented, in the late evening it was possible to accidentally replace some valuable thing and take it out with the garbage.

Agree, in the dark it is extremely difficult to discern a valuable trifle in the garbage

Rational reasons for not washing floors in the evening

Despite the fact that we have access to good lighting, the recommendation to refuse to sweep and mop the floor at night while looking remains rational. But the point here is no longer in lighting, but in banal fatigue and "blurred" eyes. After a long working day, there really is a risk of blinking on some small but valuable thing, be it a long-lost gold ring or a lost screw from some device, and then rinse it off with dirty water.

Another reason is the quality of the cleaning. By evening, you can (consciously or not) start to be lazy, skip hard-to-reach corners, and somehow drive a mop. However, this does not apply to owls - on the contrary, in the evening, their concentration improves and their vivacity.

So when is it better to wash the floors? Of course, when it is convenient for you, there is strength, time and desire. And do not be afraid of terrible supernatural punishments for breaking a superstitious ban.