#Folk Customs

[fallbabylon]

A relatively new festival, the Yokai Bon Odori, brings a creative Yokai themed twist to the traditional Bon Odori dance festival-Tachikawa Tokyo, Japan

[scavengedluxury]

Busó festivities in Mohács, 1975. From the Budapest municipal photography company archive.

[pagan-stitches]

svátku Mláďátek

In Czechia Holy Innocents Day (December 28) is considered the unluckiest day of the year.

When it rained on this day it was said that there would be a lot of childhood disease in the new year (especially measles).

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Foggy or rainy weather in the morning foretold death for children, noon for the young and unmarried, afternoon for adults and evening for the elderly.

If the weather is nice there will be a good potato crop in the new year.

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In southwestern Bohemia, and especially in regions previously inhabited by Germans, such as the Cheb, Plán and Karlovy Vary regions, the custom of ceremonial beating with a green rod on New Year's Day dates back to the 19th century.

It differs in its term from the Easter pomlázka, but its purpose is the same: it was whipped for health. Willow twigs were cut on St. Barbara's Day, left in a warm place to sprout, and tied with a red ribbon. Men whipped women with a willow twig and children their parents. The person being paid had to buy himself off with money or sweet brandy. Children and youth parades with green willow, birch, hazel, spruce and juniper twigs are widespread under various names in Austria, southern Germany, Hungary, Italy...

In Slovakia, there was a widespread custom called “mládenky” or Mládenkovánie,similar to Easter whipping: parents would whip their children in bed in the morning, supposedly to remind them of Herod’s cruelty. Then the custom of whipping men with a rod was observed by women and vice versa. Similar to Easter, on December 28th, men would whip women with rods as a joke, and in return, on December 29th, women would whip men with rods. The main role in this is played by the blow with a green rod, but it is not for punishment, but for mutual beneficial contact and fertility.

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In the vicinity of Nepomuk, children would go around the buildings, greet each other and ask: "How many Holy Innocents were there?" Either the housewife herself or one of her children would answer. For this parade, the children would receive bread or pastries. For example, in Ivančice, housewives would bake a bun in the shape of a child for the children, called a "cub". In some places, carolers would skewer pastries on a white-painted stick shaped like a sword.

In the Šumava region of Stach and its surroundings, on December 28, people would “go after the young ones.” Housewives would bake pastries the size of a muffin with a hole in the middle. They would then hand them out to children who would come in groups and say: “Dear lady, give us a young one so that God may bless you. If you don’t give us a young one, God will not give you a child!”

In some areas, parents would ask questions about the story of the murdered innocents in Bethlehem and its surroundings, and they would especially be interested in how many there were (according to legend, there were 4,444 boys, but the correct answer was “seven thousand seven hundred and seven”). When the children answered correctly, they would receive a small gift, such as a pastry.

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No laundry washing:

The most prominent tradition is not washing clothes on this day, as it was believed that doing so would result in tiredness for the family and livestock throughout the following year, as if the laundry was being washed in the blood of the murdered infants.

Restrictions on sewing:

Similarly, sewing was also avoided to prevent potential harm to children's eyes.

Focus on child protection:

The overall theme of the day is to be mindful of children and protect their innocence, aligning with the story of the "Holy Innocents" from the Bible.

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

brodacze (bearded ones) from Sławatycze

[misspjsuperior]

The Celtic crone goddess Cailleach of the British isles gathers Her firewood for the winter’s remainder during Là Fhèill Brìghde during Imbolc. 🔥 (Imbolc/g starts sunset February 1st and lasting until sunset February 2nd.) The Cailleach will make sure the weather that day is bright and clear if she intends to make winter last longer so she can gather plenty of firewood to keep herself warm in the coming months. Traditionally folks celebrate stormy or especially frigid weather on Là Fhèill Brìghde since it means The Cailleach has decided sleep in and will soon run out of firewood ensuring a sooner end to winter‘s chills ❄️

The Dutch who brought a similar legend about a badger to America where the badger became a groundhog, native to the “new world” upon ancient Turtle Island, which is where the Groundhog Day tradition based in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, USA came from 🦡 Cailleach is by contrast decidedly human in form, said to have snowy white hair, often veiled, her name translated from Gaelic literally as “old hag”. She is mother of weather, most poignantly storms. ⛈ She rules over winter as a seasonal deity in balance with fire-wielding, milk-laden Brighid who in turn oversees the time between Beltane and Samhain, from May 1st to November 1st. Imbolc is known as St. Brigid’s Day honoring the awakening of spring but it is still within the dominion of the divine crone Cailleach, depicted here in my watercolor sketchbook in honor of Imbolc 🌱

[polish-manor-house]

First Sowing, Piotr Stachiewicz (oil on canvas, 1896)

[creatura-theanarchist]

Obsessed with the poor dog at the end, poor baby 🥺💖

Expectation vs. Reality for Poshuijie, a major holiday celebrated in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province, as well as in general by the Dai, Achang, Bulang, Wa, and De'ang Chinese people.

Poshuijie ("Water splashing festival") is also known as Songkran in Thailand and is celebrated in the month of April.

English added by me :)

[julieschulerart]

The Hobby Horse. Instant Print Art. https://jschulerart.etsy.com/listing/1469570187

[alexxkay02124]

project to preserve folk customs films

Folks interested in folk customs, folk horror, or psychogeography, check this out! https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/docrowe?fbclid=IwAR39-hMZ18Ho3Mwhgqgadj35gXdVP0aoX8dOSr1m4sU5_5lqCtyugjge3kk

[batravatra]

do be doing some experimenting with the art style

[xiaq]

Did you ever work in customer service? You give off been-in-the-trenches-and-are-better-for-it vibes.

Hi, this is slightly unhinged, but thank you!!

Now you're going to get the story of how I was offered a job on the spot for the first ever position I ever interviewed for (which was, indeed, customer service).

Okay, so, I'm 15, my birthday is in two days, and HEB (Texas grocery store) is hiring baggers for $7 an hour and cashiers for a whole whopping $10 an hour. Cashiers have to have prior experience OR have to work as a bagger for a year first. But I am full of teenage verve and I want that cashier position. I want it now.

I show up on my motorcycle, so I'm in my "professional" outfit but carrying my helmet when I enter the hiring manager's office, which really sets the tone for how things proceed.

The interviewer is like, "how old are you?" and babyface mcgee me, five foot tall and all of 90lbs says, "Fifteen. But I'm sixteen in two days."

And he's like, "...we can't hire you if you're fifteen."

And I'm like, "bet, but you can get the paperwork started now, yeah?"

And he says, "wait, how did you drive a motorcycle here if you're 15?"

So the first 5 minutes of the interview turn into me showing him my license, explaining DMV rules re 15-yr-olds and permitted engine size for motorcycles and pointing out my bike in the parking lot.

"Okay," he says, clearly trying to rally. "So you have a method of transportation, that's great, but we can't consider you for the cashier job if you don't have experience. We can only consider you as a bagger."

I'm prepared for this. I lay out my most recent report card, as well as copies of the sports and academic awards I've achieved in the last year. I give my "I'm a fast learner, I'm a hard worker, and you'll benefit more from me working as a cashier, interacting with customers, than a bagger" speech. I've been buying groceries at this store my whole life, so I know that cashiers are ranked by how many 'Item of the Week' they manage to hawk at checkout (typically batteries or soda or chips). "I'll be top of the ranking for Item of the week, just you wait."

I think he is reluctantly charmed by my bull-headedness. "Okay,” he says, reaching for the can of coke on his desk. "Fine. Sell this to me, then. Right now."

This man is mid-forties. He has bad handmade artwork hung up on his office wall.

"Do you have kids?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

"Two," he says. "Boy and a girl. The girl is just a year younger than you, actually."

"Ah," I say, "is it getting harder and harder to connect with her? Monosyllabic answers? Spends all her time in her room."

"...yes," he says.

“I was the same,” I say somberly. “Until, one afternoon, my dad came into my room and handed me a Coke.”

I tap my fingers on the Coke in front of me.

“He told me to come share a drink with him while he grilled on the back porch and that once I’d finished my Coke I could crawl, hissing, back to my room, but he wanted company until then. And see, I did, actually, want to spend time with my dad. I just didn’t know how to initiate it, and my teenage hormones made it difficult for me to express that. So I took the Coke and stomped my way outside but once I was there, I drank it slowly. And I answered his questions about school and cheerleading and asked him about work and we planned a weekend father-daughter motorcycle trip into the hill country. And ever since then, every few days, he’ll come to my room and offer me a Coke, and I’ll spend half an hour drinking it in his company.”

I slide the coke across the desk to him. “Might be an approach to try with your daughter, what do you think?”

He catches the Coke automatically. He sighs.

"Yeah, alright," he says. "Cashier job is yours. Come back in two days when you're actually sixteen and we'll get your paperwork sorted out." I worked there for the rest of high school and I was, typically, top of the rankings for selling Items of the Week the entire duration.

Entirely unrelated, I hate coke. I don’t drink soda, and the only beverage my dad has ever shared with me on the back porch is a margarita. But he didn’t need to know that.

[misspjsuperior]

Would you let her in?

Mari Lwyd shirt by Miss PJ Superior

[pagan-stitches]

POMLÁZKA explained

Yay, it’s spanking day (Easter Monday)

[mellosakicc]

super rⒶndom tees

these are random designs picked out from 6 dollar shirts. any resemblance to historical or political events past, present, or future is purely coincidental. even that random letter is capitalized! hahahahaha maybe ill make more random stuff!!!

base game compatible

m&f - teen thru elder

enabled for random

custom cas thumbnail

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