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Blast from the Past
The Dangers of Whistling, Clipping, and Shaking
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
March 2021
blast from the past
If you are an expat in Korea, you likely think nothing of whistling a happy tune as you walk down the street or allowing your leg to shake when sitting in a chair. Listening to the sounds of a flute drifting off through the quiet of darkness can be calming, and clipping your fingernails after sundown is commonplace. Not so in Korea. In “Whistling with Consequences” (Gwangju News, March 2012), Stephen Redeker warned of the dangers of whistling in Korea. His original article, appearing below, gave rise to the related material complementing the perils of whistling. — Ed.
Whistling with Consequences There are a number of social faux pas that people try to avoid doing in public so as not to bother those around them. Among these are using offensive language, coughing or sneezing in someone’s face, and speaking loudly on your mobile phone in the subway or on a bus. These are but some of the actions we refrain from around strangers. Would you consider adding whistling to the list? The art of the whistle can evoke different reactions depending on where you are in the world. Most Western countries regard whistling in a positive light. An elderly man enjoying a walk while whistling his favorite tune on an ideal day might be a pleasant memory many of us from the West have from our childhood days. Those who whistle as a habit tend to do so when they feel at ease. Let us not forget all the recorded music that contains whistling, or the tunes handed down by generations of whistlers (Camptown Races comes to mind). The innocent, “everything is right with the world” emotions induced by the sound of whistling lose their joyfulness as they cross the Pacific, however. In Korea, whistling is met with a quite different reaction. Young people aside, many Koreans frown upon the act of public whistling.
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Those who are superstitious are especially likely to ask you to stop whistling if they hear it. What is the big deal? Why is such a lighthearted act as whistling met with such disdain? Whistling in public is very unusual for the normally reserved Korean, but it goes a bit beyond just being shy. Like with many other Korean nonos, the main culprit is superstition. It is said that whistling, especially at night, will attract ghosts, thought to be pervasive in Korea’s past. The sound of whistling in the cool night
air is thought to lure evil spirits, and even hissing snakes, to the uninformed whistler and his home. Do people actually still believe this is true? Possibly not, but this is the reason behind why whistling is still frowned upon by many. Think back to earlier days before Korea had electricity. Candles and oil were at a premium. Families would go to sleep early in order to wake up at dawn and tend to their farmwork. Darkness creates fear, and the eerie
sound of whistling in the dark can add to that fear. The superstition also served to quell children’s playful whistling in the darkness. However, the superstition has survived through the ages, and today it still keeps whistlers at bay.
Luring Snakes
We are all familiar with the image of the Indian snake charmer playing his flute with the cobra rising out of the basket in front of him in response to the luring notes. In Korea, however, much like the spectral sound of whistling, the shrill tune of the traditional bamboo flute being played in the night aroused fear in those whose ear it caught. Rather than attracting ghosts, it was believed that playing a flute in the dark would attract snakes. The chilling sounds of a flute were associated with the hissing sounds of a snake, which were not thought to be harbingers of good fortune. The related saying that arose and is still prevalent is “If you play a flute at night, the snakes will come out” (밤에 피리를 불면 뱀이 나온다).
2/26/2021 12:14:15 PM
