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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 KingdomMother Shipton An English prophetess and herbalist from folklore, known for predictions printed long after her death.Figure 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Healing Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 2 moreHaruspex A diviner who read the will of gods by inspecting animal entrailsFigure 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 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 KingdomAgnes Sampson A Scottish healer executed for witchcraft during the North Berwick trials.Figure Historical 馃嚠馃嚫 IcelandGaldrab贸k An Icelandic grimoire of spells and staves from around 1600Text 路 Protection 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomWitch bottle (sample) A stoppered bottle set out against curses.Charm 路 Protection 路 Cursing and harm 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 馃嚪馃嚭 RussiaBlack magic Magic used for evil or selfish purposes, and the beliefs surrounding itBelief 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚦馃嚤 Netherlands and 3 morePig-faced women A European legend of a woman with the face of a pig, and the charms used to break her curseFigure 路 Change and initiation 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 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 5 moreEuropean witchcraft Historical beliefs in harmful magic and the resulting trials across EuropeBelief 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Historical 馃嚠馃嚜 Ireland and 5 moreSeventh son of a seventh son A folklore belief that birth order grants supernatural healing or cursed powersBelief 路 Healing 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚟馃嚭 HungaryCurse of TuranTur谩ni 谩tok A Hungarian belief that a historic spell causes national misfortune and personal despairBelief 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 1 moreHercules' ClubHerkuleskeule A club-shaped amulet worn in the Roman Empire and by Germanic peoples as a protective charm.Charm 路 Protection Historical 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 1 moreUnclean force薪械褔懈褋褌褜 A Slavic term for evil spirits and the undead that inhabit the natural worldBelief 路 Cursing and harm 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 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomMadam Pigott A White Lady ghost of Shropshire who haunts roads and rides on horsesBeing 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 KingdomWirry-cow A Scottish folk figure representing a frightening object or spiritBeing 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 1 moreShamanism in Europe Scholarly theories on shamanic elements in European folk beliefs and witch trialsTradition 路 Protection 路 Cursing and harm 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 馃嚚馃嚟 Switzerland and 2 moreOrder of the Solar TempleOrdre du Temple solaire A neo-Templar new religious movement responsible for mass deaths in the 1990s.Tradition 路 Cursing and harm 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 馃嚞馃嚪 GreeceGello螕蔚位位蠋 A Greek demon of infancy and a class of beings blamed for infant death.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 1 moreThirteen Treasures of the Island of BritainTri Thlws ar Ddeg Ynys Prydain A collection of magical objects from late-medieval Welsh legendText 路 Wonder and entertainment 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 馃嚨馃嚤 PolandTopielec A Slavic water spirit of the drowned dead that pulls victims into lakes.Being 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 3 moreWiederg盲nger A German term for a revenant or ghost that returns to the world of the living.Being 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 4 moreNight ravennattravn A nocturnal creature of European folklore, feared as a child-stealer or seen as a ghost in bird form.Being 路 Cursing and harm 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 馃嚝馃嚪 FranceYan-gant-y-tan A Breton demon who carries five candles and is said to bring bad luck.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Wonder and entertainment Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomTrow Nocturnal spirits of the Orkney and Shetland islands, known for mischief and musical abduction.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Wonder and entertainment Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 ItalyScrofa semilanuta A legendary sow seen in a dream that became the ancient emblem of Milan.Figure 路 Wonder and entertainment 路 Seeing and foretelling Historical 馃嚟馃嚭 Hungary and 1 moreS谩rk谩ny A winged reptilian beast from Hungarian folklore, linked to weather and literary heroes.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Wonder and entertainment Historical 馃嚦馃嚧 NorwayDeildegast A Norwegian ghost bound to boundary stones it moved in lifeBeing 路 Cursing and harm 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
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