The symbol of a bluebird as the harbinger of happiness is found in many cultures and may date back thousands of years.
Origins of idiom
Chinese mythology
One of the oldest examples of a blue bird in myth (found on oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang dynasty, 1766–1122 BC) is from pre-modern China, where a blue or green bird (qingniao) was the messenger bird of Xi Wangmu (the 'Queen Mother of the West'), who began life as a fearsome goddess and immortal. By the Tang dynasty (618–906 AD), she had evolved into a Daoist fairy queen and the protector/patron of "singing girls, dead women, novices, nuns, adepts and priestesses...women [who] stood outside the roles prescribed for women in the traditional Chinese family". Depictions of Xi Wangmu often include a bird—the birds in the earliest depictions are difficult to identify, and by the Tang dynasty, most of the birds appear in a circle, often with three legs, as a symbol of the sun.
Native American folklore
Among some Native Americans, the bluebird has mythological or literary significance.
According to the Cochiti tribe, the firstborn son of Sun was named Bluebird. In the tale "The Sun's Children", from Tales of the Cochiti Indians (1932) by Ruth Benedict, the male child of the sun is named Bluebird (Culutiwa).
The Navajo identify the mountain bluebird as a spirit in animal form, associated with the rising sun. The "Bluebird Song" is sung to remind tribe members to wake at dawn and rise to greet the sun:
The "Bluebird Song" is still performed in social settings, including the nine-day Ye'iibicheii winter Nightway ceremony, where it is the final song, performed just before sunrise of the ceremony's last day.
Most O'odham lore associated with the "bluebird" likely refers not to the bluebirds (Sialia) but to the blue grosbeak.
European folklore
In Russian fairy tales, the blue bird is a symbol of hope. More recently, Anton Denikin has characterized the Ice March of the defeated Volunteer Army in the Russian Civil War as follows:We went from the dark night of spiritual slavery to unknown wandering – in search of the bluebird.
In L'Oiseau Bleu ("The Blue Bird") a popular tale included by Madame d'Aulnoy (1650–1705) in her collection Tales of the Fairies, King Charming is transformed into a blue bird, who aids his lover, the princess Fiordelisa, in her trials.
Most to the point, a "blue bird of happiness" features in ancient Lorraine folklore. In 1886, Catulle Mendès published Les oiseaux bleus ("the blue birds"), a story bundle inspired by these traditional tales. In 1892, Marcel Schwob, at the time secretary to Mendès, published the collection Le roi au masque d'or, which included the story "Le pays bleu", dedicated to his friend Oscar Wilde. Maurice Maeterlinck had entered Mendès literary circle as well and in 1908 he published a symbolist stage play named The Blue Bird inspired by the same material. Two children, Tyltyl and Mytyl, are sent out by the fairy Bérylune (Jessie Ralph) to search for the Bluebird of Happiness. Returning home empty-handed, the children see that the bird has been in a cage in their house all along and they create great happiness for another by giving their pet bird to the sick neighbor child. Translated into English by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, it played on Broadway from 1910. In the programme for the (revival of the) play at London's Haymarket Theatre in 1912, the programme explained: "The Blue Bird, inhabitant of the pays bleu, the fabulous blue country of our dreams, is an ancient symbol in the folk-lore of Lorraine, and stands for happiness." The play was quickly adapted into a children's novel, an opera, and at least seven films between 1910 and 2002.
See the German equivalent (blue flower).
In popular culture
The immense popularity of Maeterlinck's play probably originated the idiom in English. In 1934, this was strengthened by the popular American song "Bluebird of Happiness". Written by Sandor Harmati and Edward Heyman, it was recorded several times by American tenor Jan Peerce, for RCA Victor and also by Art Mooney and His Orchestra.
The bluebird is featured in the song "Be Like The Bluebird" in the popular musical Anything Goes.
The lyrics "Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly" in Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's 1938 song for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is a likely allusion to the idiom as well.
Shirley Temple starred in the 1940 American fantasy The Blue Bird.
In 1942, the popular song "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover" used them, despite an absence of real blue birds on those cliffs, among other imagery to lift spirits.