What da heck does "whistling past the graveyard" mean anyway?

I mean I've seen it in context many times, but I'm still not sure exactly what it means. I did an internet search and all kinds of POLITICAL rantings from both sides of the aisle came up, but I couldn't determine an exact meaning because it is used in such a variety of subtly different contexts.

What do people here think it means?

It's the fooling oneself that makes it somewhat elusive...

seems to me

graveyard. Maybe it's the same idea, but instead of holding your breath you whistle? It's supposed to hold bad luck at bay. Whatever.

It's a somewhat maleable definition from what i have gathered...

it. It got me thinking though. Every time I dealt with the breath-holding act, we were in a car and we passed the cemetery pretty quickly. A long time ago, if someone was on foot or traveling by horseback, whistling would enable the passerby to still breathe during the encounter with the graveyard. Just my two cents.

some of which is based on superstitions, which are all rooted in fundamental human fears.

I don't go by graveyards very often, though.

;)

It doesn't sound like a true lack of fear, only using a distraction allows one to "not see" the fear. Interesting.

Bravery doesn't mean a lack of fear. Bravery means being afraid but going ahead with whatever you need to do, anyway. Whistling while you do it is both a distraction from the fear and a challenge to it (and anyone else who dares to believe you're afraid).

My take, anyway. :shrug:

.

avoiding the inevitable

like the inevitable is going to happen - maybe sooner than you think - you're just fooling yourself...

It might work, it might not.
:D

Maybe not frivolous though :D

but doing it in such a way that it is obvious the only person you are trying to fool is yourself and you aren't even doing that.

Fear is an amazing motivator...

Don Henley uses it that way in one of his songs. "If Dirt Were Dollars."

Walkin' like a millionaire
Smilin' like a king
He leaned his shopping cart against the wall
He said, I been a lot of places
And I seen a lot of things
But, sonny, I seen one thing that beats 'em all
I was flyin' back from Lubbock
I saw Jesus on the plane
...or maybe it was Elvis
You know, they kinda look the same
Hey, look out, Junior, you're steppin' on my bed
I said, I don't see nothin
He just glared at me and said,
If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
I wouldn't worry anymore
Lookin' like a beauty queen
Loyal as a wife
She raised her little voice and testified,
I am a good girl
I've been one all my life
But her virtue was as swollen as her pride
She should've had the Oscar
She must have been miscast
Her fifteen minutes went by so fast
I said, Now, baby, have you got no shame?
She just looked at me, uncomprehendingly
Like cows at a passing train
If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
I wouldn't worry anymore
We got the bully pulpit
And the poisoned pen
We got a press no better
Than the public men
This brave new world
Gone bad again
God's finest little creatures
Looking brave and strong
Whistling past the graveyard
Nothing can go wrong
Quoting from the scriptures
With patriotic tears
We got the same old men
With the same old fears
Standing at attention
Wrapped in stars and stripes
They hear the phantom drummers
And the nonexistent pipes
These days the buck stops nowhere
No one takes the blame
But evil is still evil
In anybody's name
If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
We'd all be in the black

based on fooling oneself via a distraction...

The whistling "proves" you are not fearful. As for holding your breath, that is so "they" can't steal your breath/life out of you.

zalinda

This is a fascinating expression!! I can't nail it down!!