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

🇯🇵 JapanHyakumonogatari Kaidankai百物語怪談会 An Edo period Japanese parlour game where ghost stories extinguish candles one by oneRite · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment 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 2 moreNaming taboo避諱 A cultural rule against speaking or writing the names of rulers and ancestors in East AsiaBelief · Protection Historical 🇬🇧 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

🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreConcealed shoes Shoes hidden in building structures as folk charms for protection and fertilityCharm · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreAncient Egyptian religion Polytheistic worship, divine kingship, and funerary rites along the NileTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇯🇵 JapanCurse of the Colonelカーネルサンダースの呪い A Japanese sports superstition blaming a baseball team's losses on an offended fast-food mascot.Belief · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇺🇸 United StatesCurse of the Bambino A sports superstition linking a long championship drought to a player saleBelief · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇭🇺 HungaryCurse of TuranTuráni átok A Hungarian belief that a historic spell causes national misfortune and personal despairBelief · Cursing and harm Historical

🇧🇷 BrazilThe Hairy LegPerna cabeluda A Brazilian urban legend of a detached leg that attacks people at nightFigure · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Historical 🇯🇵 JapanAkisutozenekoあきすとぜねこ A Shōwa-era Japanese game that turns lovers' names into a predicted relationship outcomeBelief · Love and attraction Historical

🇸🇮 Slovenia and 5 moreVesnaВесна A Slavic personification of spring and youth, known in myth and languageFigure · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇷🇺 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

🇬🇷 GreeceGelloΓελλώ A Greek demon of infancy and a class of beings blamed for infant death.Being · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical

🇯🇵 JapanSakabashira逆柱 A reversed wooden pillar in Japanese folk belief, said to cause misfortune or ward off disasterBelief · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical

🇯🇵 Japan and 1 moreChain letterFukou no Tegami A message that demands copying and forwarding to avoid bad luck or gain fortuneBelief · Luck and prosperity · Cursing and harm Historical

🇬🇧 United KingdomChained Oak A Staffordshire oak bound in chains by a local legend of a curse and an earl.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical 🇳🇴 NorwayTycho Brahe daysTycho Brahes-dage Scandinavian folklore dates believed to be unlucky for magic and businessBelief · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇺🇸 United StatesStamping A childhood gesture believed to capture luck from specific animals or objectsBelief · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇬🇳 Guinea and 2 moreTaboo on rulers Restrictions placed on kings and priests to manage fear and hostilityBelief · Protection Historical 🇺🇸 United StatesJewett City vampires A 19th-century New England family's belief in undead plague and their violent response to it.Belief · Protection Historical 🇺🇸 United StatesCurse of Rocky Colavito A baseball superstition linking a 1960 player trade to decades of team failureBelief · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇩🇪 Germany and 3 moreDrude A Germanic nightmare spirit and the pentagram charm used to keep it outBeing · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical 🇯🇵 JapanShiranui不知火 Atmospheric ghost lights of the Yatsushiro and Ariake Seas in JapanBelief · Wonder and entertainment · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇳🇿 New Zealand and 4 moreFeather cloak A garment of feathers worn by royalty and gods across cultures to signal rank or enable flightCharm · Power and authority · Wonder and entertainment Historical 🇫🇷 FranceTempestarii Medieval figures accused of controlling storms and the beliefs surrounding them.Belief · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical

🇺🇸 United StatesNew England vampire panic A folk response to tuberculosis involving the exhumation and burning of organsBelief · Protection · Healing Historical 🇨🇭 SwitzerlandSegen A German term for blessing, charm, or spell rooted in Christian and folk traditions.Belief · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

Photo credits on this page

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

Curse of the Colonel: Ogiyoshisan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Amniomancy: JC Brand, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Curse of the Bambino: National Photo Company, Public domain, source
Naming taboo: Haruno Akiha, Public domain, source
Vesna: Viktor Vasnetsov, Public domain, source
Gello: Filippino Lippi, Public domain, source
Feather cloak: Lusanaherandraton, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Drude: Ramessos, Public domain, source
Concealed shoes: Edmund Patrick, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai: Katsushika Hokusai, Public domain, source
Chain letter: Alpha, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Chained Oak: Gary Rogers, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Ancient Egyptian religion: Moh hakem, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
The Hairy Leg: Diógenes Montenegro, Public domain, source
New England vampire panic: no credited author, Public domain, source
Sakabashira: Unknown author, Public domain, source