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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
馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomGhillie DhuGille Dubh A solitary Scottish fairy known for protecting forests and guiding lost childrenBeing 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomBlack Shuck A ghostly black dog from East Anglia folklore, often seen as a death omen or a terrifying apparition.Belief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 1 moreKnocker A mine spirit of Cornwall and Devon that warns of danger and plays tricks on workersBeing 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 1 moreHydromancy Divination using water to reveal the future or judge legitimacy.Oracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 3 moreSaturnalia An ancient Roman winter festival of role reversal and feasting in honor of SaturnTradition 路 Luck and prosperity 路 Wonder and entertainment Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 2 moreAdder stone A naturally perforated stone used as a protective talisman in European folkloreCharm 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 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 馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 2 moreNumerology The belief that numbers hold hidden meanings and influence human events.Belief 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 3 moreJet A black gemstone carved into amulets and mourning jewellery for centuriesCharm 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 1 moreWill-o'-the-wisp A ghostly light in folklore that guides or misleads travellers over marshes and bogs.Belief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 5 moreConcealed shoes Shoes hidden in building structures as folk charms for protection and fertilityCharm 路 Protection 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 GermanyAlp A Germanic spirit that presses on sleepers and drinks milkBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 2 moreCaul A birth membrane kept as a talisman for luck and protection from drowningCharm 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚝馃嚠 Finland and 1 moreSampo A magical mill or world pillar in Finnish and Estonian mythology that produces wealth.Figure 路 Luck and prosperity 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 2 moreBulla A round Roman amulet given to freeborn boys as a mark of status and protectionCharm 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 2 moreLecanomancy Divination using a dish or bowl of water to read the futureOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚠馃嚪 Iran and 5 moreHippomancy Divination through the movements, sounds, and tracks of horsesOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomFumsup A small figurine charm believed to bring good luck, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Charm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 3 moreChort褔褢褉褌 A Slavic demon spirit with horns and hooves, known in folklore as a trickster or minor evil force.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚫馃嚠 Slovenia and 5 moreVesna袙械褋薪邪 A Slavic personification of spring and youth, known in myth and languageFigure 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚪馃嚧 Romania and 2 moreStrix蟽蟿蟻委尉 A classical bird of ill omen that evolved into a term for witches and vampires across Europe.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 4 moreFiery serpents芯谐薪械薪薪褘泄 蟹屑械泄 A pan-Slavic spirit of fire and wind, seen as a demon or a household helperBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚜馃嚫 SpainAnjanaan藞hana / an.xa.n蓽 Cantabrian fairies who protect forests and bring gifts to children.Being 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚝馃嚪 FranceMargot the fairy Earthly fairies of Brittany known for dancing, building monuments, and testing human guests.Being 路 Luck and prosperity 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 GermanySuhl card reader case A 1956 East German trial of a psychic for favorable forecasts about leaving the countryBelief 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚪馃嚫 Serbia and 3 moreBo啪i膰袘芯卸懈褯 A Slavic figure linked to the new year and spring, whose name now marks ChristmasFigure 路 Luck and prosperity 路 Wonder and entertainment Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomCurse of Scotland A nickname for a playing card linked to bad luck and Scottish historyBelief 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚦馃嚧 NorwayTycho Brahe daysTycho Brahes-dage Scandinavian folklore dates believed to be unlucky for magic and businessBelief 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚝馃嚪 FrancePetit AlbertSecrets merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique du petit Albert An 18th-century French grimoire of natural and cabalistic magic sold to rural householdsText 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 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 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 5 moreFiredrakeognennyi zmei A European dragon myth born from sightings of shooting stars and will-o'-the-wispsBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚝馃嚠 Finland and 2 moreTiet盲j盲 A traditional Finnic healer and sage whose power came from memorised spells and deep knowledge.Figure 路 Healing 路 Protection Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomBuccabocka A Cornish sea-spirit and mine-dweller who receives fish offerings from coastal communities.Being 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 1 moreDried cat A dried feline body hidden in walls to protect a home from harmCharm 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚝馃嚠 Finland and 1 moreFrog coffin A Finnish folk magic burial of a frog in a tiny coffin to steal luck or reflect harmRite 路 Protection 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomFairy FlagA' Bhratach Sh矛th A tattered silk heirloom of Clan MacLeod, said to hold fairy magic and ancient power.Charm 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 2 moreFavomancy Divination by throwing beans and reading the patterns they form on the groundOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 GermanyFeldgeist German folk creatures tied to crops, weather and harvest ritualsBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚝馃嚪 FranceMagonia A cloud realm of aerial sailors blamed for hail and stolen grain in medieval EuropeBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 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 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 1 moreCromniomancy Divination by onions to reveal health, love, weather and distant newsOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Love and attraction Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomHobgoblin A household spirit from English folklore known for chores and mischiefBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity 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.