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.
🇯🇵 JapanInugami犬神
A Japanese spirit of dog possession and folk sorceryBelief · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
🇯🇵 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 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
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreSky lantern天燈
A paper hot air balloon lifted by flame to carry wishes and blessingsRite · Luck and prosperity · Protection Living
🇯🇵 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
🇨🇳 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
🇯🇵 JapanYutaユタ
Okinawan folk shamans who guide families through spirits and fortune-tellingTradition · Protection · Healing Living
🇨🇳 China and 2 moreDiyu地獄
The underworld realm of trial, atonement, and rebirth in Chinese mythologyBelief · Cleansing and purification · Change and initiation Living
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreYue Lao月下老人
The Chinese deity of marriage who binds destined couples with red cordsBeing · Love and attraction · Binding and oaths Legendary
🇨🇳 China and 4 moreKitchen God灶君
The Chinese hearth deity who reports domestic conduct to the Jade EmperorBeing · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇨🇳 China and 5 moreQingming Festival清明节
A spring day for sweeping graves, feeding the dead and honouring ancestorsTradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead · Protection Living
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreLuoshu Square洛書
An ancient Chinese three-by-three magic square linked to geomancy and numerologyTradition · Power and authority · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇨🇳 China and 2 moreEight Immortals八仙
Eight legendary Taoist figures of China, each with a power and a vesselFigure · Protection · Healing Living
🇨🇳 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
🇨🇳 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
🇨🇳 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
🇨🇳 ChinaGu蛊
A venom-based poison and black magic practice from south ChinaSubstance · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇨🇳 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
🇯🇵 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
🇯🇵 JapanKitsunebi狐火
Atmospheric ghost lights in Japanese folklore, often linked to foxes and natural phenomena.Belief · Wonder and entertainment · 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
🇰🇷 South Korea and 1 moreFan death선풍기 사망설
A South Korean urban legend that running a fan in a sealed room causes fatal suffocationBelief Fading
🇯🇵 JapanHatsuyume初夢
The first dream of the new year and its traditional omensBelief · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Living
🇯🇵 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
🇹🇼 TaiwanKuai Kuai culture乖乖文化
A Taiwanese custom of placing obedient snacks on machines to ensure smooth operationBelief · Protection Living
🇯🇵 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
🇯🇵 JapanJapanese superstitions
Common beliefs in Japan about luck, numbers, and omens rooted in language and customBelief · Luck and prosperity · Protection Living
🇯🇵 JapanTanukitsuki狸憑き (たぬきつき)
A Japanese folk belief where a tanuki spirit possesses a human, causing illness and strange behavior.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical
🇯🇵 JapanAosaginohi青鷺火
A Japanese will-o'-the-wisp attributed to the glowing flight of herons at nightBelief · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇯🇵 Japan and 1 moreKōshin庚申信仰
A Japanese folk belief involving vigils to prevent internal spirits from reporting human deeds to heavenBelief · Protection · Healing Living
🇨🇳 ChinaPeaches of Immortality仙桃
Legendary Chinese fruits said to grant eternal life to deities and mortalsSubstance · Luck and prosperity · Change and initiation Legendary
🇯🇵 JapanSakabashira逆柱
A reversed wooden pillar in Japanese folk belief, said to cause misfortune or ward off disasterBelief · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical
🇨🇳 ChinaMien shiang面相
A Chinese practice of reading character and fate through facial featuresBelief · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Historical
🇯🇵 JapanKamikiri髪切り
A Japanese yōkai blamed for the sudden disappearance of human hairBeing · Cursing and harm Historical
🇯🇵 Japan and 1 moreBake-danuki化け狸
A shape-shifting raccoon dog spirit from Japanese folklore known for pranks and illusions.Being · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Legendary
🇯🇵 JapanYakudoshi厄年
Traditional Japanese ages believed to bring bad luck and the rituals used to ward them offBelief · Protection Living
🇨🇳 China and 1 moreMoney tree搖錢樹
A mythical tree of fortune and a Chinese New Year custom for wealthFigure · Luck and prosperity · Power and authority Living
🇨🇳 ChinaEight Treasures八寶 (Bābǎo)
A set of eight symbols in Chinese art and amulets representing good fortune.Charm · Luck and prosperity · Protection Living
🇯🇵 Japan and 3 moreThoughtography念写
A claimed psychic ability to imprint mental images directly onto photographic film.Belief · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇯🇵 JapanShiranui不知火
Atmospheric ghost lights of the Yatsushiro and Ariake Seas in JapanBelief · Wonder and entertainment · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇨🇳 ChinaInterconnected-arm gibbon通臂猿
A mythical primate with linked arms that can extend one limb by pulling in the other.Figure · Power and authority Legendary
🇨🇳 ChinaSuperstition in China
A broad category for folk beliefs and rituals dismissed as backward by modern Chinese authoritiesBelief · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇨🇳 ChinaFish in Chinese mythology鱼 (yú)
A cultural symbol of wealth and abundance in Chinese traditionBelief · Luck and prosperity · Love and attraction Living
🇯🇵 JapanAyakashi妖
Water spirits and ghost lights in Japanese folkloreBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇨🇳 ChinaChinese sorcery scares
A series of moral panics in Imperial China driven by fears of magical harm and hair cuttingBelief · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Hatsuyume: Takeuchi Seihō, Public domain, source
- Aosaginohi: Koikawa Harumachi ja:恋川春町 (1744-1789), Public domain, source
- Eight Immortals: Fanghong, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Curse of the Colonel: Ogiyoshisan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kuai Kuai culture: 總統府, CC BY 2.0, source
- Bagua: TarcísioTS at Portuguese Wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Tetraphobia: Halowand, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hyakki Yagyō: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Menshen: Taiwankengo, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tanabata: Laika ac, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Kitsunebi: Abasaa, Public domain, source
- Naming taboo: Haruno Akiha, Public domain, source
- Ancestor veneration in China: Three huntings, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Peaches of Immortality: Anonymous ( China ) Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Sky lantern: Richy, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai: Katsushika Hokusai, Public domain, source
- Interconnected-arm gibbon: Xuande Emperor, Public domain, source
- Money tree: Pratyeka, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Bake-danuki: Poposhka at English Wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Kamikiri: Sawaki Suushi (佐脇嵩之, Japanese, *1707, †1772), Public domain, source
- Luoshu Square: An unknown Tibetan artist, Public domain, source
- Inugami: Sawaki Suushi (佐脇嵩之, Japanese, *1707, †1772), Public domain, source
- Qingming Festival: Jacklee ., CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Yue Lao: 仔仔好帥, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Eight Treasures: Etnografiska Museet, CC BY 2.5, source
- Diyu: ScribblingGeek, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Onomancy: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Superstition in China: Gary Todd, CC0, source
- Fish in Chinese mythology: Daderot, Public domain, source
- Sakabashira: Unknown author, Public domain, source