Five bats for fortune
In China the word for bat sounds like the word for good fortune, and five bats represent the five blessings.
Animals superstition
Bat superstitions
Bat superstitions: a bat in the house means death — or, in China, five bats represent the five blessings. First recorded: Medieval Europe as ill omen; Chinese sources as good fortune. That makes it somewhere between 500 and 1,500 years old — joint 29th oldest of the 45 superstitions we have dated.
- Earliest record
- Medieval Europe as ill omen
When it actually starts
How old is this one
First recorded
Medieval Europe as ill omen; Chinese sources as good fortune
That makes it
somewhere between 500 and 1,500 years old
Rank by age
Joint 29th oldest of 45 dated here
Category
Animals
Nocturnal, silent, mammalian and airborne at once — bats fit no obvious category, and things that fit no category attract unease across cultures.
Why it stuck. The Chinese reading runs on a pun rather than fear: the word for bat, fú, sounds like the word for good fortune, so bats appear on wedding textiles and porcelain.
28 of the dated superstitions here were written down earlier and 12 later, while 4 share its date.
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The versions people follow
What exactly is believed
A bat in the house
In European folklore a bat entering the house is a warning of death or bad news.
Bats tangled in hair
Bats are said to fly into women's hair and become tangled.
Witches' creatures
Bats were associated with witchcraft and the devil in medieval Europe.
How the bad luck is traditionally undone
Folk remedies involve opening doors and windows at dusk to let the bat out without touching it.
Where it lives today
Bats do not tangle in hair; they echolocate precisely. They are protected species in many countries, and handling one should be avoided because of rabies risk.
What people say
A bat in the house means death — or, in China, five bats represent the five blessings.What is going on
A single bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects an hour. The animal most feared in European tradition is among the most useful to have nearby.Where it applies. Feared across Europe, celebrated across China — the sharpest reversal of any omen in this set.
Nearest in age
Bat superstitions are joint 29th oldest of the 45 dated superstitions here. Of those, 3 date from 1900 or later and 14 predate the common era.
First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Bat Superstitions: Origin, Meaning and When It Began.” Accessed October 28, 2026. https://astrohot.com/superstitions/bat-omens/
For Wikipedia
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