Most of us recoil from superstition, apply the word to any ritual or belief we don’t personally adhere to—it can apply to any religion, anything that has to do with the spirit, rather than the rational, comfortingly material world.

Superstition literally means “to stand over,” or to “cause to remain in existence”—nobody knows how the word came to mean fearful, ignorant belief in the supernatural. But we know it when we see it, and we all see it in others. We steel ourselves against magical thinking, against chance, against irrational fear—or belief—in nature or God.

Bottle trees are a southern garden convention originally brought over from West Africa, used to trap evil spirits in the glittering bottles at night, keep them out of the house until the rising sun burns them up in the morning.

Such silliness! We can, and do, appreciate bottle trees for purely aesthetic reasons, for their charm and quirky regionality, admire them as we admire other crafts brought from Africa.

But what if superstition, that causing to remain in existence, isn’t literally about evil spirits that become trapped inside a colorful bottle—preferably a blue one, believed to be the threshold color, the veil between the living and the dead—what if it’s a simply a metaphor for trapping fear, just another reminder among the thousands of rituals our species uses, to help us. Help us turn away from evil. Help us remember the good. Help us begin each morning anew.

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Links:

• “Livvie Is Back,” by Eudora Welty, The Atlantic, November 1942 (free link)

  
  

• Bottle Trees: A Beautiful Tradition With a Spiritual Past – Jesslyn Shields, HowStuffWorks, n.d. (good links embedded throughout)

  
  

• The bottle tree – Dave Tabler, Appalachian History, June 21, 2018

  
  

• The American Bottle Tree – Smithsonian Gardens, February 28, 2013

This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country's 250th anniversary. 250 words on 250 works, from January 1 to December 31, 2026.

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