Bottle Tree.

July 11, 2011

I can't believe I haven't shared this picture yet!  My mom spent a lot of time and money to have her yard planned out and this one tree didn't make it for some reason or another.  She was so mad.  Then she decided to make a bottle tree, a popular southern tradition (which was actually originated back 1000 years in Africa).  We've had so much fun helping her find some different colors and shapes!  And found a fabulous antique store in Leesburg, VA!

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A man that came to fertilize the other plants in the yard stopped at this one and said that he didn't know how to treat this one, but next time, if it started shooting out wine, he was going to bring a glass and a chair!

The Bottle Tree Story

Middle 9th century, Africa...the Congo...

• a tradition of honoring relatives with memorials.  
• the grave would be surrounded with plates; leaning, on sticks, or hung from something. 
• the plates were thought to resemble mushrooms.  
• the Congo word for "mushroom" is similar to their word "to love."

Traditions following people, during the slave trade, the southern U.S. learned of the story.  Changing little by little with new generations.

• bottles were hung from trees by strings to catch bad spirits lurking near the house.  
• the spirits would be attracted to the colorful bottles.  
• bottles were tied to both ends of a string and thrown over the branches.  
• sometimes the inside of the necks were greased with animal fat to make it easier to enter and harder to exit.
• sometimes these trees were placed near the homes entrance so that the spirits wouldn't follow you in.
• some people believed that the bottles would catch evil ancestral spirits (because the ancestors knew where their family lived) and would come and get the living and take them to the land of the dead! 
• the bottles were periodically corked and thrown into the river to wash away the unwanted spirits OR it is also said that when the sun comes out the next morning, the spirits are destroyed.
• sometimes the bottles were put on the tips of trees.  Cedar trees were most often used because their up-turned branches pointed towards heaven.
• blue was thought to be an especially potent spirit repellant.  
• blue was also thought to protect the home from an illness.  (Many homes in the south have blue doors or shutters).  
• blue was the color of the sky and the water, had the power to repel evil.  
• blue is also the color of dreams, spirituality, distance and the heavenly realm.

"When a soft wind blows, you can hear the moans

of the trapped spirits whistling on the breeze.

The way the spirits get free is if a bottle breaks,

so take care around the Bottle Tree!"