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Folklore

The Faerie Month of May: Faerie Festivals and May Celebrations

Stephen D. Winick | Posted 04.22.2013 | Arts
Read More: May Day, William Shakespeare, Quincy, Child-Health-Day, Library of Congress, Thomas Morton, Whitsundays, Canterbury Tales, Frederick Loewe, Merrymount, Green Man, Dance, Folk Dancing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Beltane, t.h. White, Folklore, Celtic, Once and Future King, Holidays, Flora, Women's Colleges, Puritans, Fairies, Pentecost, Robin Hood, Mayday, Alan Jay Lerner, Camelot, Festival, Morris Dancing, Lust, Maypole, Paganism, King Arthur, Geoffrey Chaucer, Shakespeare, Sir Thomas Malory, Video, Arts News
Stephen D. Winick

Today's Maytime Faerie Festivals, including Spoutwood Farm's May Day Fairie Festival, the Maryland Faerie Festival, and the New York Faerie Festival, are outgrowths of this vibrant May tradition. They feature kings and queens, Maypole dances, flower garlands and beautiful costumes.

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Jack the Giant Slayer: Some Folklore Background

Stephen D. Winick | Posted 05.06.2013 | Entertainment
Read More: Folklore, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant Killer, Jack the Giant Slayer, Jack Tales, Giants, Movies, Folk Tales, Fantasy, Entertainment News
Stephen D. Winick

With Bryan Singer's blockbuster Jack the Giant Slayer in theaters, it might be useful to ask ourselves: who is this Jack? He's known for slaying giants, but he does a lot more, too.

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Mum's the Word: An Introduction to Mumming

Stephen D. Winick | Posted 02.27.2013 | Arts
Read More: Folklore, Britain, Celtic Music, Folk, Christmas Revels, Drama, Folk Music, Dance, Library of Congress, Birchmere, Mummers Play, Mummers, Mumming, Video, Arts News
Stephen D. Winick

What is a Mummers Play, you ask, and what is mumming? Mumming is a word for disguising oneself, going door to door, and performing songs, dances and plays in neighbors' homes and in public places.

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Author: How Ancient Folklore Inspired My Book

Lucy Wood | Posted 10.07.2012 | Books
Read More: Book News, Folklore, Folklore Books, Folklore Stories, Folklore Fiction, Folklore Book, Folklore Story, Books News
Lucy Wood

Ask someone what springs to mind when they think of mermaids, and it is doubtful that they will say loss, tragedy or drowning. But as I read nineteenth century collections of Cornish folklore, this is exactly what struck me.

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Childhood Revised

Eleni Gage | Posted 09.30.2012 | Parents
Read More: Folklore, Parenting, Nursery Rhymes, Children's Toys, Children's Stories, Helicopter Parenting, Prayer, Jack and Jill, Overprotective Parents, Parents News
Eleni Gage

Fiction of all sorts, including nursery rhymes, allows us to try out conflict in a safe way. That's the point, it's where the thrill comes in; we're scared, then reassured the danger isn't real.

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Happy Birthday Marc Chagall!

Posted 07.07.2012 | Arts
Read More: Folklore, Painters, Expressionism, Cubism, Marc Chagall, Russian Artists, Fauvism, Futurism, Jewish Art, Chagall Birthday, Jewish Artists, Slideexpand, Judiasm, World War II, Chagall, Video, Arts News

Today marks the birthday of one of the art world's most beloved Marcs, Marc Chagall. The painter reached the hearts and imaginations of people worldwi...

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Bedtime Stories: The Spider, the Arabian Cinderella and Her Fairy Godfish...

Rym Tina Ghazal | Posted 05.22.2012 | Home
Read More: Folklore, Arab, Arab Childhood, Child Folklore, Childhood Fairtytales, Middle Eastern Fairytales, Childhood Folklore, Arab Fairytales, Bedtime Stories, Children's Bedtime Stories, Home News
Rym Tina Ghazal

I loved those times, growing up as a child in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s. My friends would come and sleep over just to listen to my mother's bedtime stories.

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Strange Brew: Woman Charged With Unbelievable Crime

The Huffington Post | Timothy Stenovec | Posted 05.23.2012 | Weird News
Read More: Folklore, Spells, Catherine Yronwode, Hoodoo, Menstrual Coffee, Menstrual Blood in Coffee, Yronwode, Lucky Mojo Curio Company, Menstrual Blood, Coffee, Period in Coffee, Weird News News

This is not the best part of waking up. The Straits Times, an English-language newspaper in Singapore, is reporting that a 24-year-old maid there h...

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'Open, Gates of Fairyland': Faerie Festivals of the Eastern United States

Stephen D. Winick | Posted 06.27.2012 | Home
Read More: Folklore, Festivals, Travel, Fairies, Entertainment, Music, Fairy Tales, Culture, Music Festivals, Renaissance Festival Pennsylvania, Renaissance Festival, Renaissance Festival Maryland, Festival, Renaissance Festival East Coast, Renaissance Festival New York, Home News
Stephen D. Winick

If you live in the mid-Atlantic U.S., though, it's easier than ever to find sprites and sprigguns. The region is home to some of the largest and most popular faerie celebrations in the world, and faerie season is just about to begin.

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Things That Go Bump in the Night-Before-Christmas

Varla Ventura | Posted 02.19.2012 | Weird News
Read More: Halloween, Awkward Family Photos, Christmas, Ghosts, Goblins, Witches, Trolls, Dumb Supper, Krampus, Folklore, Christmas Myths, Weird News News
Varla Ventura

There are a number of traditions that are far more sinister than your usual red-suit wearing, welcome-lapped Santas. I'm not talking about those known "helper" elves or magical flying deer.

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Janell Ross

Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting Elicits A Big Crowd And Long Waits

HuffingtonPost.com | Janell Ross | Posted 12.04.2011 | New York
Read More: Folklore, Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, History, Rockefeller Center, Christmas, Public Christmas Displays, Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, Holidays Canada, New York, Christmas Tree, New York News

New York -- Just before 8 p.m. -- and an hour after the tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center began -- Gino Palacios stood at the southeast cor...

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8 'Old Wives Tales' That Are Dumb

Dumb As A Blog | David Moye | Posted 10.04.2011 | Weird News
Read More: Folklore, Female Folklore, Old Wives Tales, Video, Weird News News

For centuries wives have had the coveted job of nagging their families about all the things they should and shouldn't do. These fussy sayings are lov...

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A Turning of the Seasons: The King Is Dead by The Decemberists

Rob Kirkpatrick | Posted 05.25.2011 | Entertainment
Read More: Folklore, Wikipedia, The Decemberists, Indie, Folk Music, Rock, Uncle Tupelo, Hetty Green, 2011, 2000s, Oxford English Dictionary, Pacific Northwest, John Muir, Peter Buck, Nature, Portland Oregon, Colin Meloy, Capitol Records, Hank Williams, R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen, Entertainment News
Rob Kirkpatrick

I'm not sure if this is The Decemberists' best album. But there's not a bad song in the bunch here, and it's clear The King Is Dead captures this Aughties folk-rock band hitting a groove.

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The Vernal Equinox: Hatching The World Egg

Donna Henes | Posted 11.17.2011 | Healthy Living
Read More: Folklore, Celebration, Goddess, Vernal Equinox, Mythology, Spring, Fertility, Egg, Universe, Spirituality, Healthy Living News
Donna Henes

If the Winter Solstice signals the birth of the sun, then the Spring Equinox exclaims the birth of the earth -- the resurrection of nature from the dark death of winter.

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Remembering Bess Lomax Hawes

Peter Dreier | Posted 05.25.2011 | Politics
Read More: Folklore, San Fernando Valley State College, Smithsonian Institution, Folk Arts, Pete Seeger, Jacqueline Steiner, Folk Music, Woody Guthrie, Mta, John Lomax, Sing It Pretty, Almanac Singers, Bryn Mawr College, Butch Hawes, Alan Lomax, Bess Lomax Hawes, Guitar, National Endowment for the Arts, Walter O'Brien, Politics News
Peter Dreier

Throughout her life, Bess Lomax Hawes was a political radical who fought for a better future, but who also understood the importance of preserving the many cultural traditions of America's past.

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Will Charlie Ever Get Off That Train?

Peter Dreier and Jim Vrabel | Posted 05.25.2011 | Entertainment
Read More: Kingston Trio 50th Anniversary, Folklore, Folk Music, Folk Songs, Mta, Protest Music, Kingston Trio, Oregon, Entertainment News
Peter Dreier and Jim Vrabel

Since the Kingston Trio's self-censored version became a hit fifty years ago, "M.T.A." has become a part of American folklore.

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