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Vietnamese music includes a mix of traditional, patriotic music, and ensembles used for theater and religious purposes. Traditional music in the early 20th century adopted Western techniques and became very popular. It evolved into poetry and theater, which was brought to the United States and other countries. Older styles of music... more »
There is an ever-present fascination with haunted places, and lighthouses are no exception. There seems to be no shortage of haunted-lighthouse tales, some well documented and others less factual and passed along by word of mouth--tales of terror, tormented hearts and mischief. Where are these haunted towers that house beacons of... more »
The fresh flower lei is probably one of the most definitive of all Hawaiian icons. A lei traditionally expresses love, reverence, respect congratulations and welcome. There are about as many different types of leis as there are reasons to give one. Ancient Hawaiians used braided human hair, bird feathers, shells and dog teeth, but the... more »
Imagine crossing a large, open section of ocean where strange things happen and ships disappear without a trace. Now imagine that there are no markings and no natural borders to let travelers know when they've entered this mysterious zone. This is the Bermuda Triangle, a region of the Atlantic off the coast of Florida that owes its... more »
Ireland has a long history of various literature types dating back to its Gaelic language. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a number of famous writers helped establish Irish literature as one of the most important in the world. Featuring diverse styles such as poetry, plays and prose fiction, Irish writers have been... more »
Take the trickiness out of costume hunting. Treat yourself to the following do-it- or...
The first stepping stone of all cultures is their creation story. The creation story usually explains the god(s) and/or goddess(es) of the... more »
Canadian folklore offers a mix of indigenous and European influences that have much to teach Canadians and non-Canadians about beliefs, customs... more »
The first stepping stone of all cultures is their creation story. The creation story usually explains the god(s) and/or goddess(es) of the... more »
When you think of Danish folklore, The Ugly Duckling, the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale that teaches tolerance and self esteem, probably... more »
Hungarian folklore is often experienced through folk dance and folk music. Dance and music groups all over the world preserve this colorful and... more »
Folklore culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The academic and usually ethnographic study of folklore is sometimes called folkloristics. The word folklore was first used by the English antiquarian William Thoms in a letter published by the London Journal Athenaeum in 1846.Georges, Robert A., Michael Owens Jones, "Folkloristics: An Introduction," Indiana University Press, 1995. In usage, there is a continuum between folklore and mythology. Stith Thompson made a major attempt to index the motifs of both folklore and mythology, providing an outline into which new motifs can be placed, and scholars can keep track of all older motifs.
Types of folklore
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.Georges, Robert A., Michael Owens Jones, "Folkloristics: An Introduction," pp.313 Indiana University Press, 1995.
Folklore as describable and transmissible entity
Folklore can contain religious or mythic elements, it equally concerns itself with the sometimes mundane traditions of everyday life. Folklore frequently ties the practical and the esoteric into one narrative package. It has often been conflated with mythology, and vice versa, because it has been assumed that any figurative story that does not pertain to the dominant beliefs of the time is not of the same status as those dominant beliefs. Thus, Roman religion is called "myth" by Christians. In that way, both "myth" and "folklore" have become catch-all terms for all figu read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore
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