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EveryJaadu

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 AsiaSoutheast AsiaEast AsiaCentral Asia and the CaucasusMiddle EastNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEuropeNorth AmericaLatin America and the CaribbeanOceania
KindTraditionRiteCharmOracleSubstanceBeingFigureTextIllusionBelief
PurposeProtectionHealingSeeing and foretellingLuck and prosperityLove and attractionCursing and harmCleansing and purificationSpeaking with spirits and the deadChange and initiationBinding and oathsPower and authorityWonder and entertainment
WhoShamansFolk healersPriests and ritual specialistsWitches, sorcerers and cunning folkDiviners and readersMediums and the possessedCeremonial magicians and alchemistsHouseholds and ordinary peopleStage magiciansScholars and sceptics
OccasionWeddings and betrothalFestivalsBirth and childhoodDeath and remembranceHarvest, farming and weatherNew yearInitiation and coming of ageIllness and misfortuneJourneys and voyagesEveryday use
StandingLivingRevivedFadingHistoricalLegendaryPerformed
OrderBest knownA to ZNewestLiving first
馃嚪馃嚫 Serbia and 5 moreVampire An undead creature from folklore that feeds on the blood or life force of the livingBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Legendary 馃嚝馃嚪 France and 5 moreWerewolf A mythical shapeshifter that turns into a wolf, central to European witch-hunts and Gothic horror.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Wonder and entertainment Legendary 馃嚠馃嚜 IrelandBodach A Gaelic trickster figure used to frighten children and warn of deathFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Seeing and foretelling Historical 馃嚝馃嚪 FranceLady of the LakeDame du Lac A water spirit who raises knights and captures wizards in Arthurian talesFigure 路 Protection 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 5 moreKrampus A horned Alpine figure who punishes misbehaving children on KrampusnachtFigure 路 Cursing and harm Living 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 4 moreBaba Yaga A complex Slavic witch figure who lives in a moving hut and flies in a mortar.Figure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Legendary 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 1 moreAradia A figure of Italian folklore and modern pagan witchcraft, seen as a teacher of magic and liberation.Figure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Power and authority Revived 馃嚨馃嚬 Portugal and 5 moreCocoCoca A monster used to frighten children into obedience across the Iberian world and Latin America.Figure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Binding and oaths Living 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 5 moreBogeyman A mythical creature used across cultures to frighten children into obedienceFigure 路 Cursing and harm Living 馃嚪馃嚧 Romania and 1 moreMoroi A Romanian phantom that drains the living, linked to strigoi and unbaptised infants.Figure 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 3 moreJack A trickster hero from English folklore who outwits giants and oppressorsFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Living 馃嚙馃嚪 Brazil and 5 moreWhite Lady A female ghost in white clothing linked to tragedy and omens across many culturesFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Seeing and foretelling Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 1 moreBugbear A medieval English creature used to frighten children into obedienceFigure 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚠馃嚬 ItalyWitches of Benevento A medieval Italian legend of witches gathering under a walnut treeBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 1 moreBabay袘邪斜邪泄 A night spirit in Slavic folklore used to frighten children into sleepingFigure 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 2 moreJenny Greenteeth A river-hag from English folklore used to warn children away from dangerous watersFigure 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 1 moreCola Pesce An Italian merman legend about a boy cursed by his mother to live in the seaFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Seeing and foretelling Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 ItalyMonacielloMunaciello A Neapolitan sprite linked to the city's underground waterways and hidden wealth.Figure 路 Luck and prosperity 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 1 moreGrim Reaper A hooded skeleton with a scythe, representing death in Western art and story.Figure 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚠馃嚫 IcelandYule catJ贸lak枚tturinn A giant feline from Icelandic folklore that threatens those without new Christmas clothesFigure 路 Cursing and harm Living 馃嚫馃嚜 SwedenYs盲tters-Kajsa A wind-troll from Swedish folklore who danced with the gales of N盲rkeFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Legendary 馃嚠馃嚫 IcelandDj谩kninn 谩 Myrk谩 An Icelandic ghost story about a dead deacon who returns for his bride on Christmas EveFigure 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚝馃嚠 FinlandAjatar An evil female spirit of Finnish folklore associated with serpents and diseaseFigure 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomQueen of Elphame The elfin queen of Faerie from Lowland Scotland and Northern England folkloreFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Healing Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomTam Lin A Scottish ballad about a fairy knight rescued by his mortal lover on Hallowe'enFigure 路 Love and attraction 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚚馃嚦 China and 3 moreSwan maiden A folk motif where a man steals a bird-woman's feather cloak to force marriage.Figure 路 Love and attraction 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomMadgy Figgy's Chair A granite rock in Cornwall linked to a legendary witch and her storm conjuringFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚨馃嚤 Poland and 4 moreMorana袦芯褉械薪邪 A Slavic goddess of winter and death, whose effigy is drowned to welcome springFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Power and authority Living 馃嚝馃嚪 FranceTempestarii Medieval figures accused of controlling storms and the beliefs surrounding them.Belief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Historical

Photo credits on this page

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

The weekly digest

Every Monday: seven entries you may not know, what is on the calendar this week, and one rite drawn step by step.