Folklore
What is folklore?
What is folklore?
Folklore (or lore) consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called folkloristic, and people who study folklore are sometimes referred to as "folklorists".
Folklore can be divided into four areas of study: artifact (such as voodoo dolls), describable and transmissible entity (oral tradition), culture, and behavior (rituals). These areas do not stand alone; however, as often a particular item or element may fit into more than one of these areas.
Map of the Caribbean
SOUCOUYANT
(TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO)
The Soucouyant (Sukuya), also called Old Hag, is a supernatural pact in which a woman makes with the devil so that she is able to turn into all kinds of different forms. At night she sheds her human skin and changes into a ball of fire or any kind of animal and casts spells on people to turn them into animals also, but she has to slip back into her skin before dawn breaks and the cock crows, otherwise she will be unable to get back into it. So it may happen, that when people suspect that an old woman neighbour of theirs, is in fact a Soucouyant, they may trick her by going to her house at night and destroying the skin that she have left behind by putting salt on it so that it will shrink an she would be unable to get back into it and will surely die. In Trinidad, if someone walks around with a “hicky” (soukie) on their neck, their friends might tell them, “A Soucouyant suck your neck or what?”
RIVER MUMMA
(JAMAICA)
River Mumma is an attractive female water spirit who guards the source of many of our rivers. She is often seen sitting in the river, combing her hair with a golden comb. She
What is folklore?
Folklore (or lore) consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called folkloristic, and people who study folklore are sometimes referred to as "folklorists".
Folklore can be divided into four areas of study: artifact (such as voodoo dolls), describable and transmissible entity (oral tradition), culture, and behavior (rituals). These areas do not stand alone; however, as often a particular item or element may fit into more than one of these areas.
Map of the Caribbean
SOUCOUYANT
(TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO)
The Soucouyant (Sukuya), also called Old Hag, is a supernatural pact in which a woman makes with the devil so that she is able to turn into all kinds of different forms. At night she sheds her human skin and changes into a ball of fire or any kind of animal and casts spells on people to turn them into animals also, but she has to slip back into her skin before dawn breaks and the cock crows, otherwise she will be unable to get back into it. So it may happen, that when people suspect that an old woman neighbour of theirs, is in fact a Soucouyant, they may trick her by going to her house at night and destroying the skin that she have left behind by putting salt on it so that it will shrink an she would be unable to get back into it and will surely die. In Trinidad, if someone walks around with a “hicky” (soukie) on their neck, their friends might tell them, “A Soucouyant suck your neck or what?”
RIVER MUMMA
(JAMAICA)
River Mumma is an attractive female water spirit who guards the source of many of our rivers. She is often seen sitting in the river, combing her hair with a golden comb. She