Have you ever passed by a home with a front porch clearly visible and noticed the ceiling painted blue? That’s not just an ordinary blue, it’s haint blue. For over 300 years, folks in southern coastal cities have been painting their porch ceilings this color out of tradition and superstition.
‘Haint’ is the Gullah pronunciation for ‘haunt,’ or spirit, according to the Historic Savannah Foundation. A restless spirit caught between life and death would find a dwelling to haunt, but there’s one problem for them…. they cannot cross water. Legend says that haints tend to be mischievous and dubious and will enter your home and wreak havoc on your family and your belongings.
Tricked by the blue ceilings or painted window frames, these angry spirits fear the water and avoid the house. The haints who are then floating above a home would see this color on the porch ceiling and keep away from that house. Protecting the family inside from the evil spirits and their destructive tendencies.
This method of driving evil away was told and told and then retold by the Gullah when they were brought from West Africa to the coastal sea islands in the 1700s, says the amazing folks at Lowcountry Gullah.