"Haint Paint"

[ecseas]

@Lasciel

Haint Blue - very common in Charleston, where I grew up.

Here’s what you’ve got.

In order to keep spirits (haints) out of your house, you are supposed to use indigo dye on all of your thresholds and sills. Basically, any entrance to the house - air vents, windows, doors - were supposed to be bordered by indigo. Apparently indigo is very offensive to spirits, similar to the Irish idea that rowan wards people from the fae.

Indigo was freakishly expensive, as was real paint. So, you used whitewash, and the smallest amount of indigo you could and still see a trace of color, and used that instead.

Along with that tradition, the huge wide porches were necessary for keeping cool. You didn’t want to be all exposed to haints out there beyond the safety of your four house walls, so you painted the ceiling of the porch haint blue as well (and often the steps up to the porch also) so that you were protected while enjoying the breeze.

If you were REALLY worried about spirits getting you, then you also installed a witch trap (also called a bottle tree or spirit tree) in your yard. Evil greedy spirits would see the light in the bottles and fly in, getting caught because they weren’t able to get back out due to their fear of flying downwards (closer to hell).

Even as a child I saw the flaws in that logic, but bottle trees are still fairly common around old houses and in old graveyards, and some of the houses in downtown Charleston are specifically protected by mandate and required to use approved haint blue paint on the appropriate places so that the tradition continues.

False. It originally was made with lime, milk and pigment. It was supposed to look like the water, as spirits were believed unable to cross water.