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

🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreAncient Egyptian religion Polytheistic worship, divine kingship, and funerary rites along the NileTradition · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇯🇵 JapanTsukumogami付喪神 Household objects that gain a spirit after reaching their hundredth year in Japanese folklore.Being · Cursing and harm Historical

🇮🇳 India and 1 moreHeliotrope A green and red mineral stone used as an amulet for health, invisibility, and courage.Charm · Protection · Healing Historical

🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreJet A black gemstone carved into amulets and mourning jewellery for centuriesCharm · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreConcealed shoes Shoes hidden in building structures as folk charms for protection and fertilityCharm · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇷🇺 Russia and 4 moreLady MiddayPoludnitsa A Slavic noon spirit who watches over fields and punishes those who work during the hottest hours.Being · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical

🇯🇵 JapanHyakumonogatari Kaidankai百物語怪談会 An Edo period Japanese parlour game where ghost stories extinguish candles one by oneRite · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Historical 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreKnocker A mine spirit of Cornwall and Devon that warns of danger and plays tricks on workersBeing · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreNumerology The belief that numbers hold hidden meanings and influence human events.Belief · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇪🇪 Estonia and 5 moreSoul dualism A belief that a person contains two or more distinct kinds of soulsBelief · Healing · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇩🇪 Germany and 3 moreMare A spirit that sits on sleepers to cause nightmares and physical distressBeing · Cursing and harm Historical

🇮🇳 IndiaUnicorn horn A legendary object believed to neutralize poison and cure disease, traded as narwhal teeth for centuries.Charm · Healing · Protection Historical

🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreCapnomancy Divination by reading the shapes and movements of smoke from fires or incenseOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Protection Historical

🇯🇵 JapanKitsunebi狐火 Atmospheric ghost lights in Japanese folklore, often linked to foxes and natural phenomena.Belief · Wonder and entertainment · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇮🇪 IrelandBodach A Gaelic trickster figure used to frighten children and warn of deathFigure · Cursing and harm · Seeing and foretelling Historical 🇬🇧 United KingdomSt Mark's Eve An English folk custom to witness omens of death and future marriage on the eve of a saint's feast dayRite · Seeing and foretelling · Cursing and harm Historical

🇮🇹 Italy and 2 moreAugury A Roman rite of reading bird behavior to learn the will of the godsRite · Power and authority · Seeing and foretelling Historical

🇮🇹 Italy and 2 moreHaruspex A diviner who read the will of gods by inspecting animal entrailsFigure · Seeing and foretelling · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 moreAdder stone A naturally perforated stone used as a protective talisman in European folkloreCharm · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇩🇪 GermanyAlp A Germanic spirit that presses on sleepers and drinks milkBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇺🇸 United States and 2 moreSpiritualism A nineteenth-century religious movement focused on communicating with the dead.Tradition · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇮🇹 Italy and 2 moreBulla A round Roman amulet given to freeborn boys as a mark of status and protectionCharm · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇷🇺 Russia and 1 moreUnclean forceнечисть A Slavic term for evil spirits and the undead that inhabit the natural worldBelief · Cursing and harm Historical 🇨🇳 ChinaChronomancy A divination method to find lucky days and the best times for action.Oracle · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇯🇵 JapanAkisutozenekoあきすとぜねこ A Shōwa-era Japanese game that turns lovers' names into a predicted relationship outcomeBelief · Love and attraction Historical

🇮🇳 India and 3 moreAstrology A divinatory practice that links celestial positions to human affairs and earthly eventsTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇬🇧 United KingdomTrow Nocturnal spirits of the Orkney and Shetland islands, known for mischief and musical abduction.Being · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Historical

🇫🇮 Finland and 2 moreTietäjä A traditional Finnic healer and sage whose power came from memorised spells and deep knowledge.Figure · Healing · Protection Historical

🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreDianism A 19th-century American practice of sexual contact without ejaculationTradition · Power and authority Historical

🇬🇧 United KingdomHobgoblin A household spirit from English folklore known for chores and mischiefBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇨🇭 SwitzerlandSegen A German term for blessing, charm, or spell rooted in Christian and folk traditions.Belief · Protection · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇩🇪 Germany and 3 moreDrude A Germanic nightmare spirit and the pentagram charm used to keep it outBeing · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical

🇫🇷 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 · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇫🇮 Finland and 1 moreFrog coffin A Finnish folk magic burial of a frog in a tiny coffin to steal luck or reflect harmRite · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical 🇬🇧 United KingdomQueen of Elphame The elfin queen of Faerie from Lowland Scotland and Northern England folkloreFigure · Cursing and harm · Healing Historical 🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreCromniomancy Divination by onions to reveal health, love, weather and distant newsOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Love and attraction Historical

Photo credits on this page

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

Augur: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Numerology: Pietro Bongo, Public domain, source
Bulla: Anonymous ( Category:Etruscans ) Unknown author, Public domain, source
Alp: Henry Fuseli, Public domain, source
Astrology: Wilfredor, CC0, source
Heliotrope: Ra'ike (see also: de:Benutzer:Ra'ike ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Unclean force: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Tsukumogami: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Unicorn horn: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source
Capnomancy: Tigerzeng, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Haruspicy: Lokilech, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Kitsunebi: Abasaa, Public domain, source
Adder stone: Ansgar Koreng, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, source
Spiritualism: Rossington, W. W. and Garrett, J. Ellwood, Public domain, source
Dianism: Guillaume Seignac, Public domain, source
Hobgoblin: Herbert Railton, Public domain, source
Tietäjä: Robert Wilhelm Ekman, Public domain, source
Jet: Thmsfrst, Public domain, source
Drude: Ramessos, Public domain, source
Concealed shoes: Edmund Patrick, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Lady Midday: Віщун, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai: Katsushika Hokusai, Public domain, source
Petit Albert: Albertus Parvus Lucius, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Ancient Egyptian religion: Moh hakem, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Soul dualism: 尹真人, Public domain, source
Mare: Henry Fuseli, Public domain, source