Blue jay symbolism
In American folk belief the jaybird is the devil’s messenger, which is said to be why you never see one on a Friday: it is carrying sticks or sand down to hell. Mark Twain made the blue jay the best talker among birds.
Meaning
The blue jay’s recorded meanings are American and mostly devilish. The North Carolina Folklore Society’s collectors wrote down “Jaybirds go to hell every Friday with a grain of corn”, and the editors of the Frank C. Brown collection explain that the bird’s pact with the devil makes it, to many, “the devil’s messenger”. Versions came from several states, and some were recorded among African Americans in Maryland and Texas. Mark Twain gave the bird a comic reputation in “Baker’s Bluejay Yarn”. The Missouri Department of Conservation’s field guide notes the facts behind some of this: a crest the bird raises or lowers with its mood, a voice that runs from murmurs to screams, and a habit of mimicking hawks. The blue jay “spiritual meanings” published online could not be traced to any tradition or older writer.
Origin and history
The Friday belief takes several forms in the Brown collection. Jaybirds go to hell every Friday with a grain of corn; “You never see a bluejay on Friday because they are so busy carrying twigs to hell”; “Every Friday jaybirds carry a grain of sand to hell.” A Texas collector recorded among African Americans that the bluejay “is a familiar of evil spirits and is never seen on Friday”. The editors trace versions recorded by Puckett in the South, where some said the jaybirds “sold themselves to the devil for an ear of corn, and are obliged to take sticks and sand to him every Friday to make his fire hot”, and a Maryland note in the Journal of American Folklore of 1899 in which the jaybird is “a sin-reporter, making a trip to hell every third day to tell the devil about the people’s sins”. Collectors in the Ozarks heard that it goes to help the devil gather kindling,.
Blue jay omens and charms
In the same North Carolina collection, “The unusual screeching of a jaybird is a good sign of rain.” Among the Cherokee, James Mooney recorded in the late 1880s that water in which a blue jay feather, found by chance, has been soaked “will make the child an early riser”.
Mark Twain’s blue jays
In A Tramp Abroad (1880), Twain’s Jim Baker concludes “that the bluejays were the best talkers he had found among birds and beasts”: “There’s more TO a bluejay than any other creature. He has got more moods, and more different kinds of feelings than other creatures; and, mind you, whatever a bluejay feels, he can put into language.” The yarn that follows is about a jay that lands on a cabin roof with an acorn and finds a knot-hole it cannot fill.
Related birds
The Cardinal symbolism is the other crested backyard bird with a long list of Southern beliefs. The Hawk symbolism is the bird blue jays imitate.
See also
Cardinal symbolism, Hawk symbolism, Hummingbird symbolism, Owl symbolism, Crow symbolism, Raven symbolism.
Sources
- The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, vol. 7 (Wayland D. Hand, ed., 1964), Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from North Carolina, part 2, ed. Wayland D. Hand (Durham: Duke University Press, 1964), Internet Archive (Duke University Library copy), Nos. 6718, 7252-7254
- A Tramp Abroad (Mark Twain), Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad (1880), chapters 2-3, Project Gutenberg, Chapters 2-3, Baker's Bluejay Yarn
- Blue Jay (Missouri Department of Conservation field guide), Missouri Department of Conservation, Field Guide, Missouri Department of Conservation
- Myths of the Cherokee (James Mooney, 1900), James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, part 1, Project Gutenberg, Introduction; notes on bird lore
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Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research