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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 KingdomBarghest A mythical black dog from Northern England that foretells death and haunts the countryside.Being 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomTaghairm A Scottish Gaelic divination rite using sensory deprivation and animal skins to summon spirits.Rite 路 Seeing and foretelling Historical 馃嚠馃嚦 India and 2 moreTrial by ordeal An ancient judicial test where a dangerous physical trial determined guilt or innocenceRite 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland and 3 moreChangeling A substitute left by supernatural beings in place of a stolen human child or adultBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Legendary 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 4 moreNeed-fireNotfeuer A ritual fire lit by friction to protect livestock and people from disease and witchcraftRite 路 Protection 路 Cleansing and purification Historical 馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 5 moreSpodomancy Divination by reading omens in ashes, soot, and cindersOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Healing Living 馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 2 moreAstragalomancy Divination by casting marked bones, carved rods, or numbered diceOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Living 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 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 4 moreCunning folk European practitioners of folk medicine and helpful magic from the Middle Ages to the twentieth centuryTradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Historical 馃嚫馃嚜 Sweden and 2 moreGermanic seeressv谦lva Diviners and sorceresses of early Germanic and Norse societyTradition 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Power and authority Revived 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 5 moreSlavic religion The pre-Christian beliefs of the Slavic peoples before their conversion to Christianity.Tradition 路 Protection 路 Healing Revived 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomBlack dog A spectral hound from English folklore that signals death or guards the living.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomWitch bottle (sample) A stoppered bottle set out against curses.Charm 路 Protection 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚦馃嚧 NorwayCyprianus A Scandinavian folk magic grimoire and the tradition of spells it containsText 路 Healing 路 Seeing and foretelling Historical 馃嚞馃嚪 Greece and 1 moreOomancy Divination by eggs, reading shapes and signs to foresee events or diagnose spiritual statesOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Healing Living 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 馃嚞馃嚪 GreeceWitchcraft in ancient Greece and Rome Ancient beliefs and practices of magic, curses, and love charms in the Mediterranean worldTradition 路 Cursing and harm 路 Love and attraction Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 2 moreHaruspicy Reading animal entrails to discern divine will and omensRite 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical 馃嚨馃嚤 Poland and 3 moreStrzyga A female demon in Polish folklore, linked to owls and vampiric traitsBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Historical 馃嚠馃嚜 IrelandDeath coachc贸iste bodhar A spectral carriage that signals an unavoidable death in European folkloreBelief 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚪馃嚧 Romania and 2 moreCaloian A Romanian clay effigy ritual for rain and fertility, featuring a mock funeralRite 路 Luck and prosperity Fading 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 France and 4 moreEctoplasm A substance said to be excreted by mediums during s茅ances, later exposed as common household materials.Substance 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 2 moreBesom胁械薪懈泻 A twig broom used for sweeping, folk magic, and fire responseCharm 路 Protection 路 Wonder and entertainment Living 馃嚠馃嚬 ItalySegnature An Italian folk healing rite using gestures and prayers to cure illness and remove cursesRite 路 Healing 路 Protection Living 馃嚫馃嚜 SwedenKnights of 脜lleberg Swedish ghost story about sleeping warriors in a mountainFigure 路 Power and authority Legendary 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 馃嚝馃嚪 FranceTempestarii Medieval figures accused of controlling storms and the beliefs surrounding them.Belief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection 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.