Girls who whistle and hens that crow are believed to bring misfortune or face a bad fate.

Whistling Girls and Crowing Hens Bring Bad Luck

Details

This superstition reflects societal discomfort with perceived gender transgressions. Whistling, traditionally associated with masculinity or unruliness, was deemed inappropriate for girls. Similarly, hens that crow—an action typical of roosters—were believed to challenge natural order. Families might respond by discouraging girls from whistling or even killing crowing hens to ward off bad luck. Some versions of this belief claim that such behavior could bring death, sterile crops, or damage to social reputation. In households, elders especially enforced this belief to maintain behavioral norms and avoid what was seen as inviting supernatural imbalance.

Historical Context

The superstition originated in rural European and colonial American cultures, where household harmony and gender conformity were tightly linked to broader social order. Whistling in women was seen as unruly, humorous at best and wicked at worst. A crowing hen, likewise, symbolized a disruption in the natural hierarchy. In agricultural societies, such animals were considered omens of death, crop failure, or broken marriages. The expression was both a warning and a method of social regulation—used especially on children and young women to reinforce accepted roles and maintain community norms.

Modern Relevance

Today, the superstition is rarely taken seriously, though it survives in idioms or humorous references. It occasionally appears in rural or older communities, often cited by elders as an old saying from their youth. Some feminist or critical studies address it as an example of how folklore has reinforced gender roles. On social media, the expression may be shared for nostalgia or ironic effect. The superstition’s harsh literal interpretations have largely faded, but it remains a revealing folkloric artifact of social expectations toward women and conformity.

Sources

Leach, Maria (Editor). Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend. 1949.

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