Case file · Folklore / legend
Haint blue porch ceilings
Across the Lowcountry porch ceilings, shutters and door frames are painted a pale blue-green called 'haint blue', which Gullah tradition says keeps restless spirits (haints) from crossing in.
1940 CE · 32.43, -80.67 · status: legend
The account
The custom is said to come from enslaved people's use of indigo; it spread to houses across the South. The year marks the Federal Writers' Project era, when such customs were first widely written down.
The sceptical view
There is no firm early date; other explanations given are that the colour deters wasps or mimics the sky.