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

🇷🇸 Serbia and 5 moreVampire An undead creature from folklore that feeds on the blood or life force of the livingBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Legendary

🇫🇷 France and 5 moreWerewolf A mythical shapeshifter that turns into a wolf, central to European witch-hunts and Gothic horror.Being · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreLilithלִילִית A feminine figure from Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, often depicted as a night demon or spirit.Being · Cursing and harm Legendary 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreBugbear A medieval English creature used to frighten children into obedienceFigure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇫🇷 FranceLady of the LakeDame du Lac A water spirit who raises knights and captures wizards in Arthurian talesFigure · Protection · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreKrampus A horned Alpine figure who punishes misbehaving children on KrampusnachtFigure · Cursing and harm Living

🇷🇺 Russia and 4 moreBaba Yaga A complex Slavic witch figure who lives in a moving hut and flies in a mortar.Figure · Cursing and harm · Protection Legendary 🇮🇹 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 🇨🇴 Colombia and 1 moreTunda A shapeshifting entity from the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador that lures people into the forest.Figure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇵🇹 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

🇮🇹 Italy and 5 moreBogeyman A mythical creature used across cultures to frighten children into obedienceFigure · Cursing and harm Living 🇷🇴 Romania and 1 moreMoroi A Romanian phantom that drains the living, linked to strigoi and unbaptised infants.Figure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreJack A trickster hero from English folklore who outwits giants and oppressorsFigure · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Living

🇧🇷 Brazil and 5 moreWhite Lady A female ghost in white clothing linked to tragedy and omens across many culturesFigure · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Legendary 🇮🇪 IrelandBodach A Gaelic trickster figure used to frighten children and warn of deathFigure · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Historical

🇮🇹 ItalyWitches of Benevento A medieval Italian legend of witches gathering under a walnut treeBelief · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇧🇷 Brazil and 1 moreSaciSaci-pererê A one-legged prankster of Brazilian folklore who hides in dust devils and wears a magic red cap.Figure · Luck and prosperity · Cursing and harm Living

🇧🇷 BrazilThe Hairy LegPerna cabeluda A Brazilian urban legend of a detached leg that attacks people at nightFigure · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Historical

🇷🇺 Russia and 1 moreBabayБабай A night spirit in Slavic folklore used to frighten children into sleepingFigure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 moreJenny Greenteeth A river-hag from English folklore used to warn children away from dangerous watersFigure · Cursing and harm Legendary 🇮🇹 Italy and 1 moreCola Pesce An Italian merman legend about a boy cursed by his mother to live in the seaFigure · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Historical 🇮🇹 ItalyMonacielloMunaciello A Neapolitan sprite linked to the city's underground waterways and hidden wealth.Figure · Luck and prosperity · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇮🇸 IcelandDjákninn á Myrká An Icelandic ghost story about a dead deacon who returns for his bride on Christmas EveFigure · Cursing and harm Historical 🇫🇮 FinlandAjatar An evil female spirit of Finnish folklore associated with serpents and diseaseFigure · Cursing and harm Legendary 🇧🇷 BrazilRomãozinho A cursed immortal boy from Brazilian folklore who never grows and causes mischief.Figure · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Legendary

🇨🇳 China and 3 moreSwan maiden A folk motif where a man steals a bird-woman's feather cloak to force marriage.Figure · Love and attraction · Cursing and harm Legendary 🇫🇷 FranceTempestarii Medieval figures accused of controlling storms and the beliefs surrounding them.Belief · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical 🇬🇧 United KingdomQueen of Elphame The elfin queen of Faerie from Lowland Scotland and Northern England folkloreFigure · Cursing and harm · Healing Historical

🇺🇸 United StatesMoll Dyer A Maryland folktale about a woman accused of witchcraft and her cursed stoneFigure · Cursing and harm · Protection Legendary 🇸🇪 SwedenYsätters-Kajsa A wind-troll from Swedish folklore who danced with the gales of NärkeFigure · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Legendary

🇺🇸 United States and 2 moreFlying Africans A legend of enslaved people returning to Africa by magic flightFigure · Cursing and harm · Speaking with spirits and the dead Legendary 🇬🇹 Guatemala and 1 moreEl Sombrerón A tall, hat-wearing figure from Guatemalan legend who courts young women and haunts neighborhoods at dusk.Figure · Love and attraction · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇵🇱 Poland and 4 moreMoranaМорена A Slavic goddess of winter and death, whose effigy is drowned to welcome springFigure · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Living

🇬🇧 United KingdomMadgy Figgy's Chair A granite rock in Cornwall linked to a legendary witch and her storm conjuringFigure · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇨🇴 Colombia and 1 moreLa Bolefuego A fiery apparition from the Llanos that hunts travelers and avoids prayer.Figure · Cursing and harm Legendary

🇮🇹 Italy and 1 moreGrim Reaper A hooded skeleton with a scythe, representing death in Western art and story.Figure · Cursing and harm Historical

🇬🇧 United KingdomTam Lin A Scottish ballad about a fairy knight rescued by his mortal lover on Hallowe'enFigure · Love and attraction · Cursing and harm Historical 🇯🇵 JapanHashihime橋姫 A Japanese bridge spirit linked to jealousy and demonic transformation in folklore and Noh theatre.Being · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical

🇮🇸 IcelandYule catJólakötturinn A giant feline from Icelandic folklore that threatens those without new Christmas clothesFigure · Cursing and harm Living

Photo credits on this page

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

Lady of the Lake: Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, source
Swan maiden: Walter Crane, Public domain, source
Artes prohibitae: engraved by Ames of Bristol (according to Fincham, Artists and engrave, Public domain, source
Krampus: Naturpuur, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Baba Yaga: Ivan Bilibin, Public domain, source
Flying Africans: Matthew T Rader, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Werewolf: Mont Sudbury, Public domain, source
Vampire: Edvard Munch, Public domain, source
Coco: Francisco de Goya, CC0, source
Bogeyman: Francisco Goya, Public domain, source
Jack: Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, source
The Hairy Leg: Diógenes Montenegro, Public domain, source
Witches of Benevento: Guglielmo della Porta, CC0, source
Babay: Kyoukaa, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Jenny Greenteeth: Jayan.thanal, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Lilith: Photographs by Ardon Bar Hama, author of original document is unknown., Public domain, source
Moll Dyer: Dougtone, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Madgy Figgy's Chair: Jim Champion, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Morana: Marta Malina Moraczewska, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Grim Reaper: Jaroslav A. Polák, CC BY 4.0, source
Tam Lin: Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Yule cat: Christine Rondeau, CC BY 2.0, source
Djákninn á Myrká: Théodore Meyer-Heine / Jules Worms, Public domain, source