Why can't you whistle at night?

Whistling is something that many little boys like to do, and it often means that they are in a good mood. But old people often say that you can’t whistle at night. Why is that? In fact, this is mostly because whistling at night will affect other people's rest. There is also a saying that there is an ancient legend that whistling at night will attract monsters.

1. The Origin of the Whistling Custom

This custom originated from ancient military camps. Soldiers were not allowed to make any noise at night when marching or camping. It was probably because they were afraid of disturbing the soldiers on duty who were responsible for guarding; and secondly, they were afraid of "howling camp" (howling camp - a sudden sharp noise from the camp at night would irritate the nervous soldiers and cause chaos, leading to either the enemy taking the opportunity to launch a surprise attack or the soldiers mutinying) and causing unexpected events. Therefore, military regulations state that whistling, screaming, and fighting are prohibited at night.

In ancient times, people were quite superstitious and believed that "whistling in the camp" was caused by the wronged souls of those who died in battle. Therefore, they extended the belief that whistling at night would attract wronged ghosts.

According to the old people, people’s lives were very difficult in the past and there was basically no electricity. It’s pitch black everywhere you go, so those who died unwillingly should be called ghosts, right? They will come out and wander around. It is said that people who have encountered it will hear a sound similar to that of a whistle. But I think maybe people at that time didn't know much about science, so they thought so. In real life, ghosts cannot exist. As for not allowing whistling, it is certainly related to those things, and also, generally speaking, old people don’t like to hear people whistling. I always feel it's indecent.

The old people always say that whistling at night can "scare away the breeze", which is what we call "ghosts", but I personally think that is what the old people do to scare children, because the old people think that people who whistle are not good people. The second-rate people and those who don't work properly always whistle all day long and look lazy. Now it seems like it doesn’t matter at all, as long as you like it.

2. Reasons why you can’t whistle at night

Generally speaking, parents are quite taboo about whistling in the room. They are not allowed to hit or scold their children for whistling, so they have to tell a white lie to coax their children not to whistle in the room. Because everyone is afraid of snakes, when they whistle they are always worried about attracting a snake out. So I never whistle in the room again. My family never told me the reason. I just saw a post that mentioned something similar: the dog-headed eel is very similar to the Japanese "ichthyosaur" or "water monster". This eel is huge in size, and once it gets into a boat, it can cause a lot of trouble for fishermen.

The dog-headed eel is too large to be caught with ordinary fishing nets, so it often falls into the sea by mistake. If you encounter this kind of dog-head eel while fishing at sea, you must absolutely avoid letting it get close to the boat. Some dog-headed eels are several meters long. If you are not careful, the boat will be rolled up and entangled by its body, and people will be helpless. If the ship owner has poor skills, the ship may even be towed away by force, so the giant eel becomes a so-called "monster". "Strange eels" can often be seen in paintings of the Edo period. Such huge eels are generally called "water monsters"; ships sailing on the sea will be entangled by them unknowingly, and they will also smear thick mucus on the ship and then turn around and leave. When people touch these large amounts of mucus, they often think it is left by monsters. If we want to verify the "origin" of Japanese monsters, I believe that at least 70% of them come from China, but this does not represent Inoue Enryo's opinion. In addition, there are various spells, superstitions, etc., which are too numerous to mention, which almost make people feel that China is indeed a brother country of Japan. When we were young, our elders often warned us not to whistle at night, otherwise it would attract monsters. At first glance, this sounds like an authentic Chinese secret technique. The so-called "xiao" seems to be a kind of strange whistle (scholars don't seem to understand it very well), which has been passed down until the Qing Dynasty and is said to be a "sound of calling monsters."

There is some truth to the idea of ​​whistling at night. It’s best not to whistle at night!