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.
🇮🇳 IndiaPulimaranja Thondachan
A theyyam deity of North Malabar, born from a shapeshifter who became a leopard.Figure · Protection · Power and authority Living
🇬🇧 United KingdomBuccabocka
A Cornish sea-spirit and mine-dweller who receives fish offerings from coastal communities.Being · Protection · Luck and prosperity Historical
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreBogle
A Northumbrian and Scots household spirit or ghost known for perplexing people.Being · Cursing and harm · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇭🇹 HaitiHaitian CarnivalKanaval
A major Caribbean festival of music, dance, and satire leading to Mardi Gras in HaitiTradition · Wonder and entertainment · Luck and prosperity Living
🇨🇳 ChinaDragon turtle龍龜 (Lóngguī)
A Chinese mythic creature with a dragon body and turtle shell, used as a Feng Shui charm.Figure · Luck and prosperity · Power and authority Living
🇩🇪 Germany and 3 moreKlabautermann
A North Sea ship kobold that aids sailors and signals a vessel's doom.Being · Protection · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇯🇲 Jamaica and 1 moreNine-Night
A nine-day Caribbean wake rooted in Akan tradition to celebrate the deceased and guide their spirit home.Rite · Speaking with spirits and the dead Living
🇳🇿 New Zealand and 4 moreFeather cloak
A garment of feathers worn by royalty and gods across cultures to signal rank or enable flightCharm · Power and authority · Wonder and entertainment Historical
🇷🇴 Romania and 5 moreMărțișor
A red and white string charm worn in early spring to welcome the seasonTradition · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇯🇵 JapanChīsai-ojisan小さいおじさん
A tiny Japanese cryptid said to bring luck when spotted in everyday placesFigure · Luck and prosperity Living
🇩🇪 Germany and 3 moreDrude
A Germanic nightmare spirit and the pentagram charm used to keep it outBeing · Cursing and harm · Protection Historical
🇻🇪 VenezuelaDjucu
A warm sea nut used as a lucky charm in the CaribbeanCharm · Luck and prosperity Living
🇯🇵 JapanYakudoshi厄年
Traditional Japanese ages believed to bring bad luck and the rituals used to ward them offBelief · Protection Living
🇬🇧 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
🇮🇳 IndiaDrishti bommai
A fearsome doll hung at homes and vehicles to ward off the evil eye in South India.Charm · Protection Living
🇫🇮 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 States and 1 moreDianism
A 19th-century American practice of sexual contact without ejaculationTradition · Power and authority Historical
🇻🇳 VietnamBà Chúa Xứ婆主處
A Mekong Delta goddess of prosperity, asked for trade, health and fertilityBeing · Protection · Luck and prosperity Living
🇫🇮 FinlandEtiäinen
A Finnish belief in a premonitory apparition that precedes a person's arrivalBelief · Seeing and foretelling Living
🇸🇾 SyriaArslan Tash amulets
Assyrian limestone charms found in Syria that ward off demons through inscribed prayersCharm · Protection Historical
🇯🇲 Jamaica and 4 moreJumbee
A shadowy spirit of the dead in Caribbean folklore, often linked to evil deeds.Belief · Cursing and harm Living
🇳🇴 NorwayBergen rune charm
A four-sided wooden stick with runic verses for love and protection from medieval Norway.Charm · Love and attraction · Protection Historical
🇵🇱 Poland and 4 moreMoranaМорена
A Slavic goddess of winter and death, whose effigy is drowned to welcome springFigure · Cursing and harm · Power and authority Living
🇬🇧 United KingdomShoes on a table
A superstition that placing footwear on a table invites bad luck or disrespectBelief · Luck and prosperity Living
🇨🇳 ChinaEight Treasures八寶 (Bābǎo)
A set of eight symbols in Chinese art and amulets representing good fortune.Charm · Luck and prosperity · Protection Living
🇮🇹 ItalyIn bocca al lupo
An Italian idiom wishing good luck by invoking danger, with a response asking for the wolf's death.Belief · Luck and prosperity Living
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Dianism: Guillaume Seignac, Public domain, source
- Bucca: Frederick Whymper, Public domain, source
- Haitian Carnival: User:Doron, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dragon turtle: Jonathan O'Donnell, CC BY 2.0, source
- Klabautermann: Anton von Werner, Public domain, source
- Feather cloak: Lusanaherandraton, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Drude: Ramessos, Public domain, source
- Morana: Marta Malina Moraczewska, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dried cat: The Voice of Hassocks, CC0, source
- Drishti bommai: Chrissy starsi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Bergen rune charm: Bengt A. Lundberg, CC BY 2.5, source
- Eight Treasures: Etnografiska Museet, CC BY 2.5, source
- Pulimaranja Thondachan: Uajith, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Bà Chúa Xứ: Phương Huy, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Arslan Tash amulets: National Museum of Aleppo, Public domain, source