Households and ordinary people
Grandmothers, parents and neighbours doing the small things: the knot, the salt, the red thread.
Households and ordinary people do most of the world's magic: the grandmother who ties a thread on a baby's wrist, the neighbour who throws salt, the shopkeeper who hangs a lemon and chillies, the family that burns incense before a photograph. These people are not specialists and often do not call it magic. This page looks at the domestic side of the subject, which is the commonest and least written about.
Everyday customs
Household practice is woven into daily life: sweeping at new year, a bead on a cradle, a horseshoe over a door, a charm in a car. It tends to be practical, brief and handed down within the family. Many people say they do it because their mother did, or to be safe. It rarely needs a priest, a text or a fee. The hands that do it are those of mothers and grandmothers, who also cook, clean and care, so the magic is part of the labour of the home.
Women and the home
Women are the principal keepers of household custom in many societies, as mothers, grandmothers and aunts. Their knowledge covers birth, child care, food, illness, marriage and death. That knowledge is often undervalued by the formal religion and by scholars, and was also the source of accusations in the witch trials, in which women who were midwives or healers were prominent. A household custom is learned by watching and may never be explained, since the practitioner does not see it as special.
Faith and the home
Religious leaders have seen household custom as faith, as superstition or as a nuisance. Reformers in Protestant Europe, Salafi Islam and some Hindu and Buddhist movements have told people to give up such practices. Many people keep them regardless. In the diaspora, the home customs are sometimes the part of heritage that lasts longest, and are carried to new countries in suitcases. In cities, small shrines, protective charms and everyday rituals often survive in apartments, taxis and shops.
Why scholars care
Anthropologists of everyday religion and folklorists record these customs as evidence of how people manage risk. They show how belief and practice differ, since people may say they do not believe and still knock on wood. Household magic is also the easiest to commercialise, in shops selling charms and kits that detach customs from their homes. A new student or visitor may find that families who say they do not believe still follow such customs carefully, and this gap is one of the more interesting findings.
Households and ordinary people on EveryJaadu
The entries written up so far, best known first.
馃嚠馃嚦 IndiaUchchhishta啶夃啷嵿啶苦し啷嵿
A Hindu concept of ritual impurity linked to saliva and food remnantsBelief 路 Cleansing and purification Living
馃嚠馃嚦 IndiaSuperstitions in Sikh societies
Folk beliefs and rituals observed by some Sikhs despite theological prohibitions.Belief 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚪馃嚭 RussiaAugust curse
A Russian belief that severe disasters and national tragedies cluster in the month of August.Belief Living
馃嚭馃嚫 United StatesPele's Curse
A belief that taking Hawaiian sand or rock brings bad luckBelief 路 Cursing and harm Living
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
馃嚨馃嚞 Papua New GuineaBaloma
Spirits of departed kin who, Trobrianders hold, place each new child in the wombBeing 路 Love and attraction Living
馃嚜馃嚫 Spain and 2 moreHoly ChaliceSanto C谩liz
A cup believed to have held the blood of Jesus at the Last SupperCharm 路 Speaking with spirits and the dead 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚠馃嚤 Israel and 2 moreReligious restrictions on the consumption of pork
A dietary rule found in several faiths that bars people from eating pig meat.Belief 路 Cleansing and purification Living
馃嚜馃嚫 SpainIndalo
A Bronze Age pictograph used as a protective house charm and lucky symbol in Almer铆a, SpainCharm 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚜馃嚞 EgyptBarakah亘乇賰丞
A spiritual blessing power in Islam and Arabic ChristianityBelief 路 Protection 路 Power and authority Living
馃嚭馃嚫 United StatesHail Satan
A Satanic exclamation used as ritual greeting, rebel cry, and pop-culture punchlineBelief 路 Power and authority 路 Cursing and harm Living
馃嚭馃嚫 United StatesLaw of attraction
A New Thought belief that focused thoughts draw matching experiences into lifeBelief 路 Healing 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚚馃嚦 ChinaSuperstition in China
A broad category for folk beliefs and rituals dismissed as backward by modern Chinese authoritiesBelief 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚞馃嚙 United Kingdom and 5 moreWedding superstitions
Folk beliefs and omens tied to marriage customs across many culturesBelief 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚠馃嚦 IndiaSuperstition in India
Common beliefs and rituals across India that influence daily life and major eventsBelief 路 Protection 路 Luck and prosperity Living
馃嚘馃嚭 Australia and 3 moreNelson (cricket)
A cricket superstition about the score 111 and the leg-raising ritual to ward it offBelief 路 Luck and prosperity Living
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
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Nelson (cricket): Lemuel Francis Abbott, Public domain, source
- Sailors' superstitions: Siren Painter (eponymous vase), Public domain, source
- Superstitions in Sikh societies: jjron, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Uchchhishta: Ebenezergangmei, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Holy Chalice: Vitold Muratov, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Religious restrictions on the consumption of pork: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Hail Satan: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0, source
- Indalo: Ismael Olea, Public domain, source
- Barakah: 毓丕賲乇 卮丕蹃蹖賳, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Superstition in China: Gary Todd, CC0, source
- Wedding superstitions: Anonymous Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Superstition in India: Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 4.0, source