Folklore

Indian folktale

Past events passed down orally

fable by Aesop

thumb|An illustration of Andrew Lang's "Athenodorus confronts the Spectre" |361x361px Ghostlore is the body of traditional beliefs and folklore surrounding ghosts and hauntings. Such tales often feature souls of the deceased that are believed to linger in the physical world, either to communicate with the living or to seek vengeance for past wrongs. Ghostlore is a widespread phenomenon, and narratives of hauntings and ghostly encounters are found in cultures around the world.

theme in mythology and folk tales

thumb|upright=1.2|Comprachicos, illustrated by Daniel Vierge Comprachicos are groups in European folklore who were said to physically cripple and deform children to work as beggars or living curiosities. The most common methods said to be used in this practice included stunting children's growth by physical restraint, muzzling their faces to deform them, slitting their eyes, dislocating their joints, and causing their bones to malform. The term, a compound Spanish neologism meaning "child-buyers", was coined by Victor Hugo in The Man Who Laughs, an 1869 novel which triggered moral panics over

dream said to foretell childbirth

thumb|Cootie Game, a board game from 1918

Magonia is the name of the cloud realm whence felonious aerial sailors were said to have come, according to commonly held beliefs denounced in the polemical treatise by Carolingian bishop Agobard of Lyon in 815, where he argues against weather magic. The treatise is titled De Grandine et Tonitruis (On Hail and Thunder).

Fantastic character who collects children's teeth while they are asleep. Belongs to Spanish-speaking countries' tradition.

narrative motif documented in Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature

concept in folklore

A mooncalf (or moon-calf) is a monstrous birth, the abortive fetus of a cow or other farm animal. The term was occasionally applied to an abortive human fetus.

an archetypical premise common to many legends, fairy tales, and chivalric romances.

A debtera (or dabtara; Ge'ez/Tigrinya/Amharic: ደብተራ (Däbtära); plural, Ge'ez\Tigrinya: debterat, Amharic: debtrawoch ) is an itinerant religious figure in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches, and the Beta Israel, who sings hymns and dances for churchgoers, and who performs exorcisms and white magic to aid the congregation. A debtera will claim an ecclesiastical identity and behave as in minor orders. They may in fact be officially ordained as deacons, or may act outside the Church hierarchy. They are usually feared by the local population.

Presence of rabbits and hares in the visual arts

thumb|300px|The Greek Stoic Philosopher Athenodorus Rents a Haunted House

thumb|A fairy-lock in the mane of a horse.In folklore, fairy-locks (or elflocks) are the result of fairies tangling and knotting the hairs of sleeping children and the manes of beasts as the fairies play in and out of their hair at night.

A vjesci (, Silesian and ) is a vampire in Polish folklore. According to legend, some people are born with the destiny of becoming vjesci, discernable by a caul located on the newborn's head. In order to prevent these individuals from becoming a vjesci, the caul was removed, dried, ground and fed to the person on their seventh birthday. Typically, vjesci were said to be indistinguishable from humans, although in some stories, they had a ruddy complexion and an excitable nature. At the time of their death, a vjesci would refuse to take the sacrament. Their body would cool closely, and their lim

Supernatural creature

Wikimedia list article

principles for understanding folktales

Nasalo or Nos is one of the oldest traditions in parts of Gilgit-Baltistan, in the northmost territories of Pakistan. In the winter (yoono), animals such as the Tibetan yak (Shina: bepo), oxen, and cows etc. are slaughtered, for dried meat and other processed food items prepared with the meat, such as warkì or ghittey, a kind of sausage. (Pork is not used.), and in seasonal temperatures that are below freezing, the sausages are left to dry. The food items produced during this initial phase of winter are used throughout the winter to prepare different recipes.

thumb|Apothecary containers for Axungia hominis (human fat), 17th-18th centuries. Sacamantecas ("Fat extractor" in Spanish) or mantequero ("Fat seller/maker") is the Spanish name for a kind of bogeyman or criminal characterized by killing for human fat.

literature describing the origin of a people in medieval studies

music festival in Sweden

list of superstitions particular to sailors and boating

In social science, foodways are the cultural, social, and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food. Foodways often refers to the intersection of food in culture, traditions, and history.

tale told in folklore to warn its listener of a danger

In medieval lore, Tempestarii (or Tempestarius (singular)) were weather-making magicians who dwelt among the common people and possessed the power to raise or prevent storms at will. For this reason, anyone reputed as a weather-maker was the subject of respect, fear, and hatred in rural areas.

an English idiom used to describe heavy rain

A cultureme is any portion of cultural behavior apprehended in signs of symbolic value that can be broken down into smaller units or amalgamated into larger ones. A cultureme is a "cultural information-bearing unit", the contents of which are recognizable by a group of people. Culturemes are the bridge between linguistic units and culture.