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

🇫🇷 FranceYan-gant-y-tan A Breton demon who carries five candles and is said to bring bad luck.Being · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Historical

🇩🇪 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 · Cursing and harm 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

🇮🇹 ItalyScrofa semilanuta A legendary sow seen in a dream that became the ancient emblem of Milan.Figure · Wonder and entertainment · Seeing and foretelling Historical

🇫🇷 France and 1 moreDusios A Gaulish spirit type later classified as an incubus demon by early Christian writersBeing · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Historical

🇫🇷 FranceMargot the fairy Earthly fairies of Brittany known for dancing, building monuments, and testing human guests.Being · Luck and prosperity · Cursing and harm Historical 🇳🇴 NorwayDeildegast A Norwegian ghost bound to boundary stones it moved in lifeBeing · Cursing and harm Historical

🇭🇺 Hungary and 1 moreSárkány A winged reptilian beast from Hungarian folklore, linked to weather and literary heroes.Being · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Historical

🇯🇵 JapanSakabashira逆柱 A reversed wooden pillar in Japanese folk belief, said to cause misfortune or ward off disasterBelief · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical 🇯🇵 JapanYamajijii山爺 A one-eyed mountain spirit from Shikoku folklore known for its thunderous voice and unpredictable nature.Being · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreBaskerville effect A theory that superstition about unlucky numbers causes heart attacks through stressBelief · Cursing and harm Historical 🇯🇵 JapanTaka-Onna高女 A Japanese yokai of a tall woman said to spy on brothels from above.Being · Wonder and entertainment Historical 🇬🇧 United KingdomLantern man A ghost light of the English fens said to lure victims into the marshesBelief · Cursing and harm Historical

🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreDried cat A dried feline body hidden in walls to protect a home from harmCharm · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇮🇷 IranFāl-gūshفالگوش A Persian divination custom of listening to strangers' words for omensRite · Seeing and foretelling 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 KingdomBarddas A 19th-century book presenting Welsh bardic and druidic theology as ancient traditionText · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇮🇹 ItalyŚuri𐌑𐌖𐌛𐉩 (Etruscan) An ancient Etruscan deity of volcanic fire, the underworld, and healingBeing · Protection · Healing Historical 🇫🇷 FranceTempestarii Medieval figures accused of controlling storms and the beliefs surrounding them.Belief · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical 🇺🇬 UgandaKilling of disabled children in Uganda The ritual murder of disabled children in parts of Uganda for body parts and perceived benefitsRite · Cursing and harm · Power and authority 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

🇳🇴 NorwayBergen rune charm A four-sided wooden stick with runic verses for love and protection from medieval Norway.Charm · Love and attraction · Protection Historical 🇯🇵 JapanHōko這子 A Japanese soft doll used as a protective talisman for mothers and childrenCharm · Protection Historical

🇬🇧 United KingdomFairy FlagA' Bhratach Shìth A tattered silk heirloom of Clan MacLeod, said to hold fairy magic and ancient power.Charm · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇮🇶 IraqBurney Relief A Mesopotamian terracotta plaque depicting a winged goddess with owl companions and lion mounts.Charm · Power and authority · Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical

🇸🇪 Sweden and 4 moreSun cross A cross inside a circle found in prehistoric art and modern political symbolsBelief · Power and authority Historical 🇯🇵 JapanNoderabō野寺坊 A Japanese yōkai of abandoned temples and broken vowsBeing · Cursing and harm Historical

🇸🇪 SwedenSigtuna rib A runic bone amulet from medieval Sweden bearing a spell against diseaseCharm · Healing Historical 🇯🇵 JapanShiranui不知火 Atmospheric ghost lights of the Yatsushiro and Ariake Seas in JapanBelief · Wonder and entertainment · Luck and prosperity Historical

🇬🇷 GreeceAstrology and astronomy Two disciplines that shared a history before splitting into science and divinationTradition · Seeing and foretelling · Power and authority Historical 🇿🇦 South AfricaTagati A South African English term for a harmful wizard or poisoner, from Zulu roots.Belief · Cursing and harm Historical 🇮🇳 IndiaNaeviology A divination method that reads the future from moles and scarsOracle · Seeing and foretelling Historical 🇪🇬 Egypt and 1 moreScyphomancy Divination by reading signs in a cup of water or listening for voices within the glass.Oracle · Seeing and foretelling Historical 🇸🇪 SwedenÅrsgång An archaic Swedish divination ritual performed on Christmas Eve to glimpse the coming year.Rite · Seeing and foretelling Historical 🇷🇺 Russia and 2 moreFavomancy Divination by throwing beans and reading the patterns they form on the groundOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇬🇧 United KingdomQueen of Elphame The elfin queen of Faerie from Lowland Scotland and Northern England folkloreFigure · Cursing and harm · Healing Historical

🇬🇧 United KingdomTam Lin A Scottish ballad about a fairy knight rescued by his mortal lover on Hallowe'enFigure · Love and attraction · Cursing and harm Historical 🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreCromniomancy Divination by onions to reveal health, love, weather and distant newsOracle · Seeing and foretelling · Love and attraction Historical 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreElder Mother A guardian spirit of elder trees in English and Scandinavian folkloreBeing · Protection · Cursing and harm Historical

🇺🇸 United StatesNew England vampire panic A folk response to tuberculosis involving the exhumation and burning of organsBelief · Protection · Healing Historical 🇷🇺 RussiaVolkhovnikВолховник A lost Old Russian divination book of omens and signsText · Seeing and foretelling · Healing Historical 🇬🇧 United KingdomThe Cheltenham Ghost A late nineteenth century English haunting investigated by the Society for Psychical ResearchBelief Historical

🇸🇾 SyriaArslan Tash amulets Assyrian limestone charms found in Syria that ward off demons through inscribed prayersCharm · Protection Historical

🇸🇾 SyriaMoleosophy Divination by reading the shape and place of moles on the bodyOracle · Seeing and foretelling Historical

🇬🇧 United KingdomHobgoblin A household spirit from English folklore known for chores and mischiefBeing · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇫🇷 FranceMagonia A cloud realm of aerial sailors blamed for hail and stolen grain in medieval EuropeBelief · Cursing and harm · Luck and prosperity Historical 🇮🇶 Iraq and 1 moreAramaic Uruk incantation A Seleucid-era magical tablet written in Aramaic using cuneiform signsText · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical

🇩🇪 GermanyFeldgeist German folk creatures tied to crops, weather and harvest ritualsBeing · Cursing and harm · 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.

Śuri: Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain, source
Changeling: Henry Fuseli, Public domain, source
Scrofa semilanuta: M.casanova, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Yan-gant-y-tan: Louis Le Breton, Public domain, source
Night raven: Kim Diaz Holm (den unge herr Holm), CC BY 4.0, source
Dusios: Eric Hunt, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
Sárkány: Albrecht Dürer, Public domain, source
Hobgoblin: Herbert Railton, Public domain, source
Feldgeist: Zwoelefant, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Kilili: Unknown author, CC0, source
Dried cat: The Voice of Hassocks, CC0, source
Bergen rune charm: Bengt A. Lundberg, CC BY 2.5, source
Fairy Flag: Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Sun cross: National Museum of Denmark, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Sigtuna rib: Swedish National Heritage Board, CC BY 4.0, source
Astrology and astronomy: anonymous, Public domain, source
Moleosophy: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Tam Lin: Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
New England vampire panic: no credited author, Public domain, source
Sakabashira: Unknown author, Public domain, source
Arslan Tash amulets: National Museum of Aleppo, Public domain, source