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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
馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland and 1 moreBuilders' rites Ceremonies performed during construction to ensure stability and mark progress.Rite 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚠馃嚩 Iraq and 5 moreGrimoire A textbook containing instructions for spells, rituals, and the creation of magical objects.Text 路 Protection 路 Healing Historical 馃嚠馃嚫 IcelandIcelandic magical stavesgaldrastafir Sigils from Icelandic grimoires believed to hold magical powerCharm 路 Power and authority 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 1 moreNicholas Culpeper An English herbalist and astrologer who translated medical texts into English for the poor.Text 路 Healing 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomHob A small household spirit of Northern England and the Anglo-Scottish border.Being 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 5 moreNecromancy A form of divination that seeks to speak with the dead for hidden knowledge.Tradition 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 2 moreAugury A Roman rite of reading bird behavior to learn the will of the godsRite 路 Power and authority 路 Seeing and foretelling Historical 馃嚜馃嚞 Egypt and 2 moreNatural magic A historical tradition exploring hidden forces in the physical worldTradition 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 3 moreSixth and Seventh Books of Moses A grimoire claiming to reveal the hidden spells of Moses for controlling spirits and natureText 路 Power and authority 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 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 馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland and 4 moreFairy Queen A female ruler of fairies found in folklore, literature, and witchcraft trials across Europe.Figure 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚪馃嚭 RussiaTriple-headed eagle A heraldic and mythological bird with three heads, appearing in Russian symbolism and European manuscripts.Being 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚝馃嚪 France and 1 moreDusios A Gaulish spirit type later classified as an incubus demon by early Christian writersBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚫馃嚜 Sweden and 4 moreSun cross A cross inside a circle found in prehistoric art and modern political symbolsBelief 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚠馃嚪 Iran and 5 moreAxis mundi A concept describing a central point connecting the earthly and heavenly realms.Belief 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority 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 馃嚨馃嚤 Poland and 1 moreKarze艂ek小泻邪褉斜薪懈泻, 袣谢邪写械薪械褑 A Slavic mine spirit that guards treasures and guides miners.Being 路 Protection 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy艢uri饜寫饜寲饜寷饜墿 (Etruscan) An ancient Etruscan deity of volcanic fire, the underworld, and healingBeing 路 Protection 路 Healing 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.