Folklore

Our Folklore category includes several subcategories relevant to this topic: Traditions, Urban Legends, Amulets, Rites and Rituals, Witchcraft, Superstitions, and Astrology.

The term folklore comes from the old English language. It is composed of two words: folk (meaning "people") and lore (meaning "knowledge" or "tradition"). Folklore, invented by the British antiquarian William John Thoms (1803-1885), replaced an outdated terminology at that time - popular antiquities.

Folklore springs from the common culture of a group of people and includes all the traditions specific to that culture or subculture.

Among the most well-known folklore elements are stories, proverbs, traditional handmade objects, legends specific to a region or people, celebration rituals (such as Christmas or weddings), folk dances, and initiation rituals (still practiced in many cultures worldwide).

We can discover a plethora of lore, traditions, myths, and superstitions for almost every aspect of everyday life. Many contain bits of truth and are inspired by actual events.

Others are nothing more than figments of our imaginations.

But regardless of their origin, myths, legends, lore, traditions, and superstitions exert a controlling force over many.

Birth, wedding, or funeral traditions and all noteworthy holidays (St. Andrew, St. Nicholas, Christmas, or Easter) are deeply rooted in most people's cultures.

Folklorists call these ceremonies rites of passage, a term first used by Arnold Van Gennep in Rites of Passage, a writing published in Paris in 1909. The terminology was quickly adopted and marked the transition from one biological or social condition to another.

Urban legends are another big part of folklore. While much more recently introduced, urban legends are viewed as a modern genre of traditional folklore deeply rooted in some popular cultures.

What exactly are urban legends? Urban legends are short stories of contemporary folklore, a type of popular tradition or legend, sometimes associated with a superstition that, although they feature frightening, unusual, grotesque, or supernatural events, have gained wide circulation.

Most of the time, urban legends show a chronicle of actual facts and events that happened in the past or are happening today.

Many urban legends revolve around events taken from reality, distorted, exaggerated, and enriched with fabulous and fictional elements. Other urban legends originate from the misinterpretation or misunderstanding of the stories by those who heard them and decided to pass them on.