Keeping the Haints Away

The haints, as everyone already knows, are spirits, ghosts if you will. And in many places, especially the southern U.S. people painted the underside of the porch roofs blue (some people call the underside of a roof a ceiling). And in some places you can actually walk into a paint store and ask for Haint Blue and they will ask, "Light or dark?" The theory here is if you paint your porch "ceiling" haint blue the evil spirits will pass through thinking it is the sky and thus protecting the house and all those who stay there. The nay-sayers claim it keeps the bugs away (a theory started when the paint was mixed on site and they used lime in the paint, so technically the lime kept the bugs away. I don't know if haints like lime or not) or they claim it helps give the illusion of extending daylight at the end of the day. To the nay-sayers I say "phooey!"