We just moved into a new home we love-but one thing is freaking us out. There’s a tree in our yard covered in blue bottles. We’ve never seen anything like it, and my kids wanted to take them down, but I stopped them. Even stranger, other yards in the neighborhood have them too. What do glass bottles on trees mean? We’re confused.
I learned the whole truth from my neighbor.
“Oh, the bottle tree? You must be new around here,” old Mrs. Darlin said, adjusting the shawl around her shoulders as she looked over at our yard. “Don’t be spooked, child. Those bottles got a story older than most of us.”
She leaned in closer, voice lowering just enough to feel like a whisper wrapped in wind.
“Back in the old days — before phones, before highways — folks around here believed in spirits. Not the kind you invite for dinner. I mean the ones that slither in at night, through cracks and silence, bringing bad luck and worse.”
She pointed a bony finger at the blue glass glinting in the sun.
“See, blue bottles were said to trap those spirits. Evil ones. Trickster ones. The color blue lures them in — and the glass traps their souls come nightfall. By morning, the sun burns ’em away.”
I glanced at the tree, the breeze making the bottles hum with a soft, eerie music.
“You don’t take down a bottle tree unless you want trouble,” she warned. “That’s why every yard has one ’round here. We keep the old ways. Some say it’s superstition. I say — better safe than sorry.”
As she turned to leave, she added one last thing over her shoulder:
“If you ever hear the bottles clinking when there’s no wind… best stay inside till morning.”