Folklore

[DeterminedJuliet]

This is spurned from Old Git's post about a tradition that he keeps (greeting magpies). I've never heard of that particular tradition, and I find this sort of thing interesting, so I thought it'd be a neat idea to create a "folklore" thread. We have a global community, so what are some "traditions" from your area?

There is a lot of Newfoundland folklore, let's see.

A belief in faeries was still pretty common up until recently. I'm sure that it's taken directly form English/Irish lore, but I've always found that interesting. Faeries were called the "Good people" or the "little people" and they could be benevolent or malevolent - they could bring you good luck if you pleased them or brutally injure you if you pissed them off (they were - apparently - quite possessive over their berry patches and red was considered 'their' colour).

Actually, there are still a couple of places in Newfoundland that locals are superstitious about. There's a small island about a half-hour's drive outside of the capital called "Bell island" and they have an area called "Butler's Marsh", which is supposed to be infamous for faerie "occupation". There have been some plays and books written about the area. Pretty neat.

What's some folklore from where you're from?
 

[OldGit]

About 5 miles north of me are two funny little pointed hills, called Pyon Hill and Knapphouse Butt.  Apparently Satan is supposed to go up one of them and throw red-hot horseshoes across to the other.  Also Robin Hood used to shoot his arrows from PH to KB and then walk over and shoot them back.

No, I don't know why, either.

Pyon Hill:


I can't find a pic of Knapphouse Butt - the beginning of the eastern slope is on the right of the photo.

[The Magic Pudding]

I was most fascinated by the story of Bula, who came through the land with his wives. The parts of the land he visited are known as "sickness country", and local Aborigines, whose history dates back 50,000 years in the park, have always known that living in sickness country for long periods means falling ill.

That sickness country encompasses the land that is being mined (or has been zoned to be mined) for uranium.

A lot of the stuff is crap but this is interesting, there could be other places designated sickness country for no good reason.  I don't actually know how unhealthy it is to live here anyway, maybe it wouldn't be an ideal water catchment.  I don't know if nomadic people noticed over millennia this was an unhealthy place, designated OK places as OK and didn't falsely designate good places as bad.

[Ali]

Out near where I was born in MO, there is something called "Spook Light."  They say that no one really knows what it is, so of course the legend has to do with lost loves and Native Americans (don't they all? )

http://from-the-shadows.blogspot.com/2006/11/southwest-missouris-spook-light-road.html

I will say that I have seen Spooklight, so I can tell you for sure that the phenomenon really happens.  I can't speak to the accuracy of attributing it to an Indian brave searching for his lost love.

PS - I LOVE this article I found about it.  All of the places it mentions are places from my childhood.  I was born and lived in Joplin, my grandparents on my mom's side lived in Carthage (one of them still does, part time) and my grandma on my dad's side lived in Seneca.  Makes me warm and fuzzy to read about the tiny little corner of the world that I came from. 

[Ali]

Oh yeah, and now in CO - definitely Kokopelli.  That little flute playing merrymaker is everywhere!

http://www.indigenouspeople.net/kokopelli.htm

[Crow]

The only one I know of where I live is of an old parsonage that was supposedly haunted due to the amount of deaths that happened in the building and the gates leading to the surrounding park and the parsonage itself are know as "the gates of hell".

Where my parents live it is full of local mythology and folklore, with most being found in the book "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen", there is also a wicca commune hidden away in the woods that I stumbled across last year.