A Boo Hag is a creature of the night, a skinless monster with red muscles, prominent blue veins, and eyes that reflect light like a cat’s. Sometimes it’s depicted with flowing white hair, like the hair that “grows” on corpses that led many older generations to believe the vampires were coming from the dead to feed. (Hair and fingernails seem to “grow” on corpses because, as the skin dehydrates, the nails and hair look longer).
The Boo Hag looks human during the day because it cloaks itself with its previously unlucky victim’s skin. At night, it escapes the skin and goes looking for its next victim. It can slip inside through any crack in a window or a crevice in a wall. Once inside, it finds you sleeping in your bed and crawls on top of you. It sucks the air from your lungs as you sleep, “riding” you until sun-up when it escapes to its hidden skin suit.
Painting the Haint Blue on windowsills, shutters, doorways, and even the verandas’ ceilings kept the spirits and Boo Hags away. The color would cause confusion, as a ghost would think they had stumbled into a body of water (which they cannot cross) or stepped out into the open sky and would be swept away by the wind or killed by the sun. It was a cheap and relatively easy way to keep away spirits out for blood, bodies, and death.
Haint Blue is a color found at your local hardware store, and it’s common to see it painted onto the ceilings of covered porches of new construction with no one knowing the story behind the hue. It’s believed to bring calm and make spaces feel more extensive than they are. That’s why you sometimes see old houses with bright blue shutters, roofs, and fences; it’s keeping out the evil spirits while allowing the good ones to stay and guide the younger generations.
