If one sings at a table while the family are eating, it means the death of a friend.
Or bad luck (Virginia); disappointment (New Jersey).
Webster City, Iowa.

If one sings at a table while the family are eating, it means the death of a friend.
Or bad luck (Virginia); disappointment (New Jersey).
Source: Current Superstitions (1896), entry 1224.
Fanny D. Bergen, editor.
Modern normalized navigation; the historical attribution above remains unchanged.