Porches and Southern homes often go hand in hand, particularly if the house is older. They are places to take naps, relax, enjoy summer evenings and entertain guests. And if your house is 100 years old or older, there’s a good chance that if the ceiling isn’t painted blue, it was at one time.
But why? Does it keep evil spirits known as haints away? Does it keep wasps and other flying insects from nesting on the ceiling? Here’s a look at haint blue paint and how it possibly came to be.
“About any house in town is going to have a blue ceiling, so it’s pretty much ubiquitous,” said Carter Burns, executive director of the Historic Natchez Foundation. “Even houses that aren’t historic will have a blue ceiling as well.
“It’s traditional and it’s what people think of on a porch. They think of blue-gray floors and that blue ceiling. I think it’s looked at as a Southern thing. Of course, we probably have more porches in the South than other parts of the country.”
More than just a country store: Wagner’s Grocery, 1870 community hub, gets new life in Mississippi
Keeping the tradition of blue porch ceilings alive
Abby and Tate Hobdy purchased an old house in Natchez and part of making it home was a fresh coat of blue paint on the porch ceiling.
“We renovated it, so we moved in in September of last year,” Abby Hobdy said. “It was built in 1916.
“It did have blue paint on it, so I actually just went with a brighter blue. It looks like the sky. It’s more of a calming effect than anything.”
Michael Rabb also purchased a home in Natchez recently. It’s a 1900 Victorian that he renovated. Like Hobdy, there really wasn’t another option for his porch ceiling.
“I’ve always thought they’re supposed be (blue),” Rabb said. “I guess it’s just what we do.
“I like tradition and all that. I like carrying it on, even though I don’t know why.”
More: See how the director of ‘The Help’ and one of the oldest churches in MS are connected
The legend of haint blue porch ceilings, Gullah and haints
When Rabb said the words, “I don’t know why,” he was saying he didn’t know why porch ceilings became such a tradition. One widespread story involves haints, which are said to evil spirits or hags. Legend has it that the blue ceiling looks like water and haints won’t cross water. So, they won’t come into a house with a blue porch ceiling.
The same has been said about houses, shutters and trim painted blue.
Its origin is often attributed to the Gullah. Gullah are the descendants of enslaved people in Georgia and South Carolina. However, some doubt that is the origin.
“Haint blue was never mentioned in my family on Hilton Head Island,” Louise Miller Cohen, founder of the island’s Gullah Museum, told the Savannah Historic Foundation in 2020. “People are saying that we paint our houses blue to ward off the evil spirits. If that was true, all the houses on the island would be painted blue.”
MiMi Miller, historian at the Historic Natchez Foundation, doesn’t think that’s the origin of it, either. She said she’s seen the color on homes dating between 1798-1820, but the name haint blue came around much later.
“That color has been around a long time, but nobody referred to it as haint,” Miller said. “They used to finish buildings on the interior with lime wash.
“It was often bluish or blue-green. I don’t know when they named the paint haint blue. I think the haint thing is part of a style. Things are styles that come and go.”
Styles certainly come and go, but if this one ever really went away, it’s back. Light blue paints for porch ceilings are now marketed as haint blue by paint companies Sherwin-Williams as well as Behr.
More: These 5 homes are some of the oldest in Mississippi (Some pre-date the Revolutionary War!)
Does haint blue paint keep away haints and wasps?
One theory circulating is that light blue paint on porch ceilings mimics the sky and prevents insects like mud daubers and wasps from nesting on them. Hobdy said she had heard the theory and asked a Sherwin-Williams employee about it when she was choosing paints.
Hobdy said she was told that at one time it may have because the paint contained lye, and that may have repelled insects, but today’s blue paint would not.
“I kind of believe it deters bugs, but the experts say it does not,” Hobdy said.
Rabb agreed. “I do have a wasp nest in one corner that I had to kill, so I guess that’s not completely correct,” Rabb said.
When it comes to haints, haint blue paint has a much better track record. Miller said she owns two homes with haint blue paint on their porch ceilings and she’s never had a problem with haints, although admittedly, she doesn’t believe in them.
Hobdy said she had an unexplained incident while renovating her house involving an old knob on a radiator that flew across a room and hit a wall near where she was painting. She wasn’t quite sure if it was haint that did it or just a regular old ghost, but after she put a fresh coat of blue paint on her porch ceiling, the problem seemed solved.
Rabb said he’s lived in two homes with blue porch ceilings when asked if he’s had haint problems he replied, “I can’t think of anything. If I heard a noise at night, it was probably my cat.”
Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Haint blue and Southern porches: The Southern tradition explained
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
