Fancy a folkloric read? Check out #FolkloreThursday’s books!
Fancy a folkloric read? Check out FolkloreThursday’s books!
The Fairy Trees: Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Rowan
White blossom on the trees is one of the delights of springtime, but it masks a deeper magic in three of the most charismatic of British trees: blackthorn, hawthorn and rowan. Storyteller and ecologist Lisa Schneidau has some practical tips on navigating plant folklore, bringing you face to face with the fairy realms and the ways of the Other Folk…..
A Californian Krampus
Relentlessly sunny and known for a love of trend over tradition, Los Angeles is an unlikely home to a new incarnation of the old Alpine devil. It helps, perhaps, that make-believe is serious business in my town, and that it’s filled with creative people prone to see in an old tradition of folk Catholicism a revolutionary way to shake up the holidays.
The Victorian Language of Flowers: Hiding Secret Messages in Plain Sight
If a bouquet of flowers arrives at our door, we’re more interested in who sent them. The Victorians were more concerned with what it meant.The Victorian language of flowers, also known as floriography, was a way to send messages using specific plants and flowers. Combining different flowers allowed them to send more complex or sophisticated messages.Let’s look at how this language developed and how to use it.
Mixing Animals, Birds, Humans and Gods in Celtic Mythology
Animals played an important part in the everyday life of the ancients Celts. In Celtic mythology the lives of animals, birds, humans and gods are interwoven to provide rich stories alluding to important matters in their society such as life and death, love and hate, jealousy and lust. Provide here is a brief review of some of those myths and legends.
Wishing on a Star: Angels, Normans, and Pinocchio
The exploration into the origins of common superstitions continues with ‘wishing on a star’.