Don't Whistle at Night — Elders Say It Calls Things Over

Both the south and the north have this rule: after dark, don't whistle.

The reasons vary from place to place. In many northern areas, they say the whistle is shrill and carries far; whistling at night invites "unclean things," and the whistler doesn't even know it. Some southern places are more specific: whistling at night attracts snakes; others say it calls "passers-by" — they hear someone calling them and follow you home. In Guangdong and Fujian, people also say that if a child whistles at night, it will invite nightmares.

One common explanation is that in the past there were no lights at night, villages were separated by mountains, and whistles were used by thieves and bandits to signal each other. So hearing a whistle at night made people alert. Passed down over time, "watch out for thieves" turned into "watch out for ghosts."

This taboo exists at sea too. Old fishermen forbid whistling on board, saying it summons wind, and when the wind comes the boat is in trouble. Western sailors have the exact same superstition.

Some people have deliberately whistled at night in their housing estates and say nothing came. Others say this rule was never about what comes from outside — it's about not waking up a whole building of people in the middle of the night.

#Folklore #网络转载 #民间禁忌