Folk and village custom: magic in this belief world
Rural and household beliefs that belong to no single organised religion.
Folk and village custom is the large body of belief and practice that belongs to no organised religion: the charm against the evil eye, the cure for warts, the fairy hawthorn, the household spirit, the lucky day. It is passed within families and communities and exists in every society. This page looks at how it is kept, who keeps it, and why it is both valued and dismissed. It is also called popular religion, vernacular religion or lived religion by scholars.
Keepers and settings
Keepers are often older women, farmers, midwives, shepherds and craftsmen. Settings are the house, field, well, crossroads and church porch. European cunning folk offered help for fees and kept charms and books. In many Asian and African villages the specialist is a healer, a diviner or a spirit medium working beside religion. The same grandmother may light a candle at church, tie a thread on a child and say a charm for a burn, and see no conflict between them.
Names and labels
The same thing carries many names: the evil eye is the nazar, mal de ojo and ayin hara. Folklorists collected such customs from the nineteenth century, sometimes as relics of a vanished past and sometimes as living culture. The label folk also marks class, since the term often implies rural, poor or uneducated, a bias that modern scholars try to avoid. Where the village has a wise woman or a bone-setter, the community knows what to ask of her and what she will refuse to do.
Religion, state and reform
Churches, mosques and temples have absorbed, tolerated and condemned folk practice in turn. States have banned it as backward: Chinese campaigns against superstition in the twentieth century closed local temples and shrines, and Soviet policy targeted village healers. At times governments have turned to it as national heritage, as in revived festivals across Europe and Asia. Historians and folklorists note that it often keeps old customs alive within newer religions, such as lighting fires at midsummer within Christian saints' days.
Change and commerce
Urban life and migration thin out folk knowledge, while heritage projects and the internet gather it. Customs reappear as products, such as protective charms in shops and festival tourism. Some folk practice carries harm: village accusation of witchcraft, treatments that delay medical care, and fees charged to relieve fear. Illness needs real medical care. In places with active heritage movements, folk custom has become a source of pride, and young people record songs and cures from grandparents before they are lost.
Folk and village custom on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
🇮🇩 IndonesiaNyi Roro KidulRatu Laut Selatan
The spirit queen of Java's southern coast and guardian of the Indian OceanBeing · Protection · Cursing and harm Living
🇯🇵 JapanKodama木霊
A tree spirit in Japanese folklore that brings misfortune if the host tree is harmedBeing · Cursing and harm Living
🇮🇶 Iraq and 1 morePazuzu𒀭𒅆𒊒𒍪𒍪 (pà.zu.zu)
A Mesopotamian wind demon and protective amulet against child-harming spiritsBeing · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical
🇪🇸 Spain and 5 moreDuende
A humanoid spirit of Iberian and Latin American folklore, ranging from household pranksters to forest guardians.Being · Protection · Cursing and harm Living
🇧🇷 BrazilBoitatá
A fiery serpent of Brazilian folklore that guards forests or frightens childrenBeing · Protection · Cursing and harm Living
🇵🇭 PhilippinesTikbalang
A horse-headed spirit of Philippine forests that leads travelers astrayBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Living
🇦🇹 Austria and 3 morePerchtaPercht
A Alpine goddess of winter who rewards diligence and punishes laziness during the twelve days after Christmas.Being · Luck and prosperity · Cursing and harm Revived
🇬🇷 Greece and 4 moreKallikantzarosκαλικάντζαρος
A malevolent goblin that dwells underground and surfaces during the twelve days of Christmas.Being · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇮🇹 ItalyBadaliscBadalisch
A mythical goat-headed creature from the Italian Alps, captured and mocked during Epiphany celebrations.Being · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Living
🇯🇵 JapanMisaki御先
Japanese spirit-like entities that serve gods or possess humans with illness and calamityBeing · Cursing and harm · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇹🇭 Thailand and 5 moreKrasueกระสือ
A floating head with trailing organs from Southeast Asian folkloreBeing · Cursing and harm Living
🇷🇺 Russia and 4 moreFiery serpentsогненный змей
A pan-Slavic spirit of fire and wind, seen as a demon or a household helperBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇵🇱 Poland and 3 moreStrzyga
A female demon in Polish folklore, linked to owls and vampiric traitsBeing · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical
🇬🇷 GreeceGelloΓελλώ
A Greek demon of infancy and a class of beings blamed for infant death.Being · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical
🇫🇷 FranceMargot the fairy
Earthly fairies of Brittany known for dancing, building monuments, and testing human guests.Being · Luck and prosperity · Cursing and harm Historical
🇵🇹 Portugal and 1 moreCabra cabriola
A fire-breathing goat bogeyman used to frighten children in Portuguese and Brazilian folkloreBeing · Cursing and harm Living
🇵🇭 PhilippinesTiyanak
A vampiric creature in Philippine mythology that mimics a baby to lure travelers.Being · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Living
🇩🇪 Germany and 3 moreDrude
A Germanic nightmare spirit and the pentagram charm used to keep it outBeing · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical
🇬🇧 United KingdomHobgoblin
A household spirit from English folklore known for chores and mischiefBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreElder Mother
A guardian spirit of elder trees in English and Scandinavian folkloreBeing · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical
🇩🇪 GermanyFeldgeist
German folk creatures tied to crops, weather and harvest ritualsBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreBogle
A Northumbrian and Scots household spirit or ghost known for perplexing people.Being · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Kallikantzaros: Katolophyromai, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Rabisu: editor Austen Henry Layard , drawing by L. Gruner, Public domain, source
- Gazu Hyakki Yagyō: Toriyama Sekien, Public domain, source
- Badalisc: Luca Giarelli, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Changeling: Henry Fuseli, Public domain, source
- Duende: René Mayorga, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Boitatá: The ponta cabeça, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Krasue: Xavier Romero-Frias, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Strzyga: Filip Gutowski, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Gello: Filippino Lippi, Public domain, source
- Nyi Roro Kidul: Gunawan Kartapranata, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Perchta: Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Hobgoblin: Herbert Railton, Public domain, source
- Feldgeist: Zwoelefant, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Drude: Ramessos, Public domain, source
- Tikbalang: The original uploader was Rodsan18 at English Wikipedia . ( Original t, CC BY 2.5, source