Whistling - Superstition

Superstition

In many cultures, whistling or making whistling noises at night is thought to attract bad luck, bad things, or evil spirits.

In Russian and other Slavic cultures (also in Romania and the Baltic states), whistling indoors is superstitiously believed to bring poverty ("whistling money away"), whereas whistling outdoors is considered normal. In Serbia, it is said that whistling indoors will attract mice,, and in parts of South East Asia and South India, whistling at night is thought to bring snakes.. In Hawaiian lore, whistling at night is considered bad luck because it mimics the sound of Nightmarchers. In the Philippines, it is considered disrespectful to whistle in public places especially in the presence of women. When women do so it is simply improper.

Whistling on board a sailing ship is thought to encourage the wind strength to increase. This is regularly alluded to in the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian. A United States Navy saying alluded to a supposition that only homosexuals whistled.

Theater practice has plenty of superstitions: one of them is whistling: in most theaters (especially in opera houses, where the odds are that a catchy opera tune will be unconsciously whistled), whistling on stage is thought to bring bad luck or at least a bad performance. The reason may be that stagehands used whistled signals to communicate in the old houses, before radio links and other devices were introduced. On-stage whistling could be distracting or even dangerous, as it could be wrongly interpreted as a signal or stage cue.

In previous years in England, women were cautioned not to whistle, as it was believed "A whistling woman never marries", leaving her to be a spinster. It is popularly believed (although untrue) that women are physically incapable of whistling.