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.

RegionSouth Asia Southeast Asia East Asia Central Asia and the Caucasus Middle East North Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Europe North America Latin America and the Caribbean Oceania

KindTradition Rite Charm Oracle Substance Being Figure Text Illusion Belief

PurposeProtection Healing Seeing and foretelling Luck and prosperity Love and attraction Cursing and harm Cleansing and purification Speaking with spirits and the dead Change and initiation Binding and oaths Power and authority Wonder and entertainment

WhoShamans Folk healers Priests and ritual specialists Witches, sorcerers and cunning folk Diviners and readers Mediums and the possessed Ceremonial magicians and alchemists Households and ordinary people Stage magicians Scholars and sceptics

OccasionWeddings and betrothal Festivals Birth and childhood Death and remembrance Harvest, farming and weather New year Initiation and coming of age Illness and misfortune Journeys and voyages Everyday use

StandingLiving Revived Fading Historical Legendary Performed

OrderBest known A to Z Newest Living first

🇹🇷 Turkey and 5 moreEvil eye A curse caused by an envious look and the charms used to block itBelief · Protection · Cursing and harm Living

🇨🇦 Canada and 1 moreTotemdoodem A spirit or symbol linking a group to nature, from Ojibwe clan systems to Australian kinshipBelief · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreFirst-footciad-chuairt The first visitor on New Year's Day, believed to set the household's fortune for the year aheadTradition · Luck and prosperity Living

🇮🇪 Ireland and 1 moreBrigid's crossCros Bhríde A woven straw charm hung for protection, named after Ireland's patron saintCharm · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living

🇮🇳 India and 2 morePlanets in astrology Seven celestial bodies used to map human character and destinyBelief · Power and authority · Luck and prosperity Living 🇬🇧 United KingdomSt Mark's Eve An English folk custom to witness omens of death and future marriage on the eve of a saint's feast dayRite · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Historical

🇮🇳 IndiaWitch-hunts in India Violent persecution of people accused of witchcraft, mostly women, in rural IndiaBelief · Cursing and harm Living

🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreWild Hunt A spectral chase across Europe led by a mythic figure and ghostly riders.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical

🇵🇹 Portugal and 5 moreCocoCoca A monster used to frighten children into obedience across the Iberian world and Latin America.Figure · Cursing and harm · Binding and oaths Living

🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreNecromancy A form of divination that seeks to speak with the dead for hidden knowledge.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Historical

🇯🇵 JapanKitsunebi狐火 Atmospheric ghost lights in Japanese folklore, often linked to foxes and natural phenomena.Belief · Wonder and entertainment · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇫🇷 France and 3 moreWitches' Sabbath A legendary gathering of witches described in early modern trial records and folkloreBelief · Cursing and harm Historical

🇮🇪 Ireland and 4 moreWinter solstice The shortest day and longest night of the year, marked by rites of solar returnTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Living

🇬🇧 United KingdomCornish mythology The folk tales and legends of Cornwall, shared with Brittany and Wales.Tradition · Wonder and entertainment Historical

🇨🇳 China and 2 moreNaming taboo避諱 A cultural rule against speaking or writing the names of rulers and ancestors in East AsiaBelief · Protection Historical

🇲🇳 Mongolia and 2 moreWind Horseརླུང་རྟ་ An East and Central Asian symbol of the soul, luck, and vital energyBeing · Luck and prosperity · Protection Living

🇪🇸 SpainFolklore of Spain The oral traditions, legends, and folktales of the Iberian PeninsulaTradition · Wonder and entertainment Living

🇩🇪 Germany and 7 moreWalpurgis NightWalpurgisnacht A spring vigil marking the eve of Saint Walpurga's feast day with bonfires and student festivalsRite · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living 🇯🇵 JapanKitsunetsuki狐憑き A Japanese folk belief in which a fox spirit enters and controls a human host.Belief · Cursing and harm · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇨🇳 China and 2 moreEight Immortals八仙 Eight legendary Taoist figures of China, each with a power and a vesselFigure · Protection · Healing Living

🇲🇽 Mexico and 5 moreWitchcraft in Latin AmericaBrujería A syncretic blend of Indigenous, African, and European magical practices across Latin AmericaTradition · Protection · Healing Living 🇮🇹 Italy and 1 moreAradia A figure of Italian folklore and modern pagan witchcraft, seen as a teacher of magic and liberation.Figure · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Revived

🇮🇪 Ireland and 5 moreFairy ring A natural ring of mushrooms surrounded by folklore about dancing spirits and witches.Belief · Wonder and entertainment Living

🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreWill-o'-the-wisp A ghostly light in folklore that guides or misleads travellers over marshes and bogs.Belief · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreScottish folkloreBeul-aithris na h-Alba The myths, creatures and beliefs of the Scottish people, recorded from ancient times to the present.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Living

🇨🇳 China and 2 moreMenshen門神 Guardian figures pasted to doors in Chinese folk religion to protect homes from evil.Belief · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living

🇸🇳 Senegal and 5 morePentagramπεντάγραμμον A five-pointed star figure used across history for protection, ritual, and cosmologyCharm · Protection · Binding and oaths Living

🇳🇴 Norway and 2 moreValknut A symbol of three interlocked triangles found on Germanic artifacts and used in modern Heathenry.Belief · Power and authority Living

🇯🇵 Japan and 2 moreTanabataたなばた (七夕) A Japanese celebration of star-crossed lovers and written wishesTradition · Luck and prosperity · Wonder and entertainment Living

🇮🇪 Ireland and 3 moreChangeling A substitute left by supernatural beings in place of a stolen human child or adultBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Legendary

🇨🇳 China and 1 moreAncestor veneration in China中國傳統宗法性宗教 Rites for dead kin who are thought to watch over the familyTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living 🇬🇧 United KingdomBarghest A mythical black dog from Northern England that foretells death and haunts the countryside.Being · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇮🇹 Italy and 5 moreFig sign A hand gesture used to ward off the evil eye or as an insult in many culturesBelief · Protection · Cursing and harm Living

🇷🇺 Russia and 7 moreSlavic Native FaithРодноверие A modern polytheistic movement drawing on Slavic folklore, romanticism, and global spiritual traditions.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Power and authority Living

🇪🇬 EgyptCurse of the pharaohs A belief that disturbing ancient Egyptian tombs brings illness or death to the living.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical

🇨🇳 China and 2 moreOnomancy Divination based on the letters, numbers, or written strokes of a person's nameOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living 🇨🇳 ChinaGu蛊 A venom-based poison and black magic practice from south ChinaSubstance · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇷🇺 Russia and 2 moreCaul A birth membrane kept as a talisman for luck and protection from drowningCharm · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇨🇳 China and 1 moreBagua八卦 A set of eight trigram symbols from China used in divination, cosmology, and feng shui.Tradition · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Living

🇮🇷 Iran and 5 moreKnocking on wood A gesture of tapping wood to ward off bad luck or prevent tempting fateBelief · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living 🇨🇳 China and 3 moreQi氣 / 气 A vital force in Chinese philosophy and medicine, believed to flow through all living things.Substance · Healing · Power and authority Living

🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreBay Laurelδάφνη An aromatic Mediterranean plant used in cooking and as a symbol of victory and purification.Substance · Protection · Cleansing and purification Living

🇮🇳 India and 1 moreNazar battuनज़र बट्टू / نظر بٹو A charm or deliberate flaw used in South Asia to ward off the evil eye.Charm · Protection Living 🇬🇧 United KingdomBlack Shuck A ghostly black dog from East Anglia folklore, often seen as a death omen or a terrifying apparition.Belief · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇮🇪 IrelandFetch A spectral double of a living person, seen as an omen of death or long life.Being · Seeing and foretelling Historical

🇨🇳 China and 5 moreTetraphobia The avoidance of the number four due to its similarity to the word for death in East Asian languagesBelief · Luck and prosperity Living

🇯🇵 JapanHyakki Yagyō百鬼夜行 A Japanese folklore concept of a night parade of supernatural creaturesBelief · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇺🇸 United States and 4 moreRainmaking Efforts to induce rain through technology, ritual, or prayer.Tradition · Protection · Healing Living

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Eight Immortals: Fanghong, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Witchcraft in Latin America: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
Witch-cult hypothesis: Francisco Goya, Public domain, source
Amniomancy: JC Brand, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Changeling: Henry Fuseli, Public domain, source
Curse of the pharaohs: Jerzy Strzelecki, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Bagua: TarcísioTS at Portuguese Wikipedia, Public domain, source
Knocking on wood: The White House, Public domain, source
Bay Laurel: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0 us, source
Nazar battu: Wiki-uk, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Tetraphobia: Halowand, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Hyakki Yagyō: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Rainmaking: George Catlin, Public domain, source
Walpurgis Night: Luis Ricardo Falero, Public domain, source
Coco: Francisco de Goya, CC0, source
Will-o'-the-wisp: Hermann Hendrich, Public domain, source
Fairy ring: User:Mrs skippy, Public domain, source
Menshen: Taiwankengo, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Tanabata: Laika ac, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Valknut: Sacrificial_scene_on_Hammars_(I).JPG : Berig derivative work: The Man, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Pentagram: Tomruen, Attribution, source
Witch-hunts in India: Granger, Public domain, source
Fig sign: Harald the Bard, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Onomancy: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Folklore of Spain: Mikipons, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Cornish mythology: waterborough, Public domain, source
Necromancy: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
Imbolc: Culnacreann, CC BY 3.0, source
Slavic Native Faith: Union of Slavic Rodnover Communities (Союз Славянских Общин Славянской, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Wind Horse: Clemensmarabu, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Wild Hunt: Peter Nicolai Arbo, Public domain, source
Winter solstice: Image by Przemyslaw " Blueshade " Idzkiewicz, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Kitsunebi: Abasaa, Public domain, source
Naming taboo: Haruno Akiha, Public domain, source
Planets in astrology: Jan van Loon, Public domain, source
Ancestor veneration in China: Three huntings, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Totem: Jami430, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Evil eye: FocalPoint, CC BY-SA 3.0, source