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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
馃嚘馃嚤 AlbaniaXhindi Invisible spirits in Albanian mythology that appear at night and may help or harm.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Power and authority Legendary 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 3 moreKlabautermann A North Sea ship kobold that aids sailors and signals a vessel's doom.Being 路 Protection 路 Wonder and entertainment Historical 馃嚠馃嚬 ItalyIn bocca al lupo An Italian idiom wishing good luck by invoking danger, with a response asking for the wolf's death.Belief 路 Luck and prosperity Living 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomShoes on a table A superstition that placing footwear on a table invites bad luck or disrespectBelief 路 Luck and prosperity Living 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomBarddas A 19th-century book presenting Welsh bardic and druidic theology as ancient traditionText 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead Historical 馃嚠馃嚫 IcelandGr媒la A monstrous Icelandic troll associated with Christmas and the Yule LadsBeing 路 Cursing and harm Living 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomLantern man A ghost light of the English fens said to lure victims into the marshesBelief 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚨馃嚤 Poland and 1 moreKarze艂ek小泻邪褉斜薪懈泻, 袣谢邪写械薪械褑 A Slavic mine spirit that guards treasures and guides miners.Being 路 Protection 路 Power and authority Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 1 moreCromniomancy Divination by onions to reveal health, love, weather and distant newsOracle 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Love and attraction Historical 馃嚝馃嚠 FinlandEti盲inen A Finnish belief in a premonitory apparition that precedes a person's arrivalBelief 路 Seeing and foretelling Living 馃嚜馃嚫 SpainXana A water spirit of Asturian myth who offers treasures or madness to those who hear her song.Being 路 Luck and prosperity 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚫馃嚜 SwedenYs盲tters-Kajsa A wind-troll from Swedish folklore who danced with the gales of N盲rkeFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity 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 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 3 moreDrude A Germanic nightmare spirit and the pentagram charm used to keep it outBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomCain bairns A Scottish folk belief that witches took children as a tax to the DevilBelief Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 1 moreDried cat A dried feline body hidden in walls to protect a home from harmCharm 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚜馃嚫 SpainGuajona A blood-sucking hag from Cantabrian and Asturian legendBeing 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomMadgy Figgy's Chair A granite rock in Cornwall linked to a legendary witch and her storm conjuringFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚛馃嚜 GermanySuhl card reader case A 1956 East German trial of a psychic for favorable forecasts about leaving the countryBelief 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Luck and prosperity Historical 馃嚫馃嚜 SwedenSj枚r氓 A Swedish lake spirit that rewards kindness and drowns the disrespectfulBeing 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Legendary 馃嚪馃嚫 SerbiaBauk袘邪褍泻 A bear-like creature from Serbian folklore that lurks in the dark.Being 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚠馃嚬 ItalyUR Group An Italian esoteric circle studying magic and traditional philosophy in the late 1920s.Tradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Change and initiation 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 馃嚪馃嚧 RomaniaUria葯 Giants in Romanian folklore, known by regional names and linked to landscape features.Being Historical 馃嚪馃嚭 Russia and 1 moreKuma Lisa袣褍屑邪 袥懈褋邪 A trickster fox from Slavic folklore who outwits other animalsFigure 路 Wonder and entertainment Legendary 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany and 1 moreAufhocker A German folklore spirit that leaps on travelers and weighs them down.Being 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚝馃嚪 France and 1 moreDames Blanches Spectral women in French folklore who demand dances or warn of dangerBeing 路 Cursing and harm 路 Protection Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomCeffyl D诺r A Welsh water spirit that takes the form of a horse to test or harm travellers.Being 路 Cursing and harm 路 Luck and prosperity Legendary 馃嚪馃嚭 RussiaVolkhovnik袙芯谢褏芯胁薪懈泻 A lost Old Russian divination book of omens and signsText 路 Seeing and foretelling 路 Healing Historical 馃嚪馃嚫 Serbia and 3 moreBo啪i膰袘芯卸懈褯 A Slavic figure linked to the new year and spring, whose name now marks ChristmasFigure 路 Luck and prosperity 路 Wonder and entertainment Historical 馃嚨馃嚤 Poland and 4 moreMorana袦芯褉械薪邪 A Slavic goddess of winter and death, whose effigy is drowned to welcome springFigure 路 Cursing and harm 路 Power and authority Living 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 馃嚠馃嚜 IrelandSleih beggey Manx fairies and little people of the Isle of ManBeing 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚪馃嚭 RussiaMeduza袦械写褍蟹邪 A Russian mythic figure with a woman's head and a serpent body, linked to trickery.Being 路 Cursing and harm Legendary 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomTom Thumb A tiny English folk hero who outwits giants and serves King ArthurFigure 路 Wonder and entertainment Legendary 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 馃嚘馃嚬 Austria and 3 moreSalige Frau A blissful Alpine spirit who guides farmers and guards mountain gameFigure 路 Protection 路 Healing Legendary 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 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomBiast Bhealach Odail A shapeshifting spirit of a Scottish mountain passBeing 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomGorsedd stonesCerrig yr Orsedd Stone circles built for the National Eisteddfod of Wales to host druidic ceremonies.Tradition 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living 馃嚦馃嚤 Netherlands and 3 moreZwarte Piet A companion of Saint Nicholas in Low Countries folklore, now the subject of major cultural debate.Figure 路 Luck and prosperity Living 馃嚞馃嚙 United KingdomChained Oak A Staffordshire oak bound in chains by a local legend of a curse and an earl.Belief 路 Cursing and harm Historical 馃嚠馃嚫 IcelandYule catJ贸lak枚tturinn A giant feline from Icelandic folklore that threatens those without new Christmas clothesFigure 路 Cursing and harm Living 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 馃嚠馃嚜 IrelandJack O'The Lantern An Irish folktale about a deceitful man condemned to wander with a carved lanternFigure 路 Wonder and entertainment Historical 馃嚠馃嚦 India and 5 moreSailors' superstitions A global collection of omens, charms and taboos used by mariners to manage the risks of life at seaBelief 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Living 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 馃嚠馃嚫 IcelandDj谩kninn 谩 Myrk谩 An Icelandic ghost story about a dead deacon who returns for his bride on Christmas EveFigure 路 Cursing and harm Historical
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The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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