One of Many folk-tales as to the origin of the Bottle Tree
The Bottle Tree once was a common sight in the Southern landscape, but nearly vanish as ancient folk beliefs and customs "became out of favor" until it became an "in" Yard folk art item in past few years. The modern bottle trees have been featured in many mainstream magazines.
The Origin to the tree goes back to the ninth century; in the Congo, where hand-blown glass was part of the African culture. The bottles, tubes and flat pieces of glass were hung on huts and trees as a talisman against evil spirits. This practice was passed on to African-Americans. They subsituted colorful glass bottles, and placing them on dead trees that were place near homes. Cedar trees were often used because the cedar tree's branches point heavenwards. The colorful bottles were place over small branches, and blue bottles were considered the best for capturing evil sprits as they mesmerized by the play of sunlight through the bottles. The trees were usually placed near entry gates where unknown strangers might be harboring an evil spirt and the colorful bottles would lure and capture the evil spirt. Eventually, blue Milk of Magnesia bottle was the bottle of choice. It was also thought that when the wind blew past these bottles, the sounds the wind made blowing through the bottles were to be the moans of the trapped evil spirt. (adaped from Bill Steer)
Today, it is a focal folk art piece for the yard, a whimsical , colorful accent that reminds us Southerners of our past and maybe even ,for some, a just in-case, evil spirit snare.
