In dark and uncertain times such as these, it’s easy to wish you could see into the future. You might easily turn to fortune-telling practices to try and navigate the potentially choppy waters ahead. The idea of divination as a whole lies beyond the scope of this post. It’s not just fortune-telling, it’s more a […]
Folklore
Meet Fortuna, Goddess of Luck, Abundance, and Fate
The English language features a lot of sayings about fortune or fate. Fortune favours the bold. May the odds be ever in your favour. They all boil down to the same thing – Fortuna may, or may not, give you a boost. She’s the woman to speak to if you want some luck sprinkled on […]
Who was Spring-heeled Jack, the Victorian scourge of London?
Spring-heeled Jack sits in the centre of a weird Venn diagram. It features urban legends, ‘penny dreadful’ serial fiction, theatre plays, and modern folklore. The last sightings of him were in the early years of the 20th century. Yet Jack still makes appearances in contemporary popular culture, including: True, in these later adaptations, he’s part […]
Inviting Sin-Eaters to a Funeral: Fact or Folklore?
There are few areas of human existence not touched by folklore and superstition. Unsurprisingly, burials and funerals come with a whole raft of beliefs and practices. Some of them persist to this day, while others, like sin-eaters, have largely died out. Despite the practice apparently lasting from the 17th to the early 20th century, there […]
Cemetery superstitions: How to avoid bad luck in a graveyard
Cemeteries are either fascinating monuments to social history, or eerie gardens populated by the dead. The decline in the popularity of burial and the relocation of post-death practices to undertakers rather than families has created an aura of mystery around death, particularly nowadays. Cemetery superstitions still hold sway, even now. But earlier eras had a different […]
Roses are Red: The Sinister Side of Valentine’s Day Folklore
Sending mean cards? Eating mashed earthworms? Using jack o’lanterns to light medieval love banquets? They’re all surprising yet vaguely sinister ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Trying to divine the origins of Valentine’s Day proves challenging. Some believe the day is named for St Valentine, a priest who conducted marriage ceremonies in secret. Officials executed him […]
