zwierzeta: Folklore of the United States

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Folklore of the United States encompasses the myths, legends, tall tales, oral traditions, music, customs, and cultural expressions that have developed within the United States over centuries. It reflects the diverse origins of the nation's people, drawing from Native American traditions, European settler narratives, African American storytelling, and the folklore of immigrant communities from Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere. American folklore includes iconic figures such as Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed, regional creatures like Bigfoot and the Jersey Devil; and urban legends that persist into the digital age. It also incorporates folk music, superstitions, ghost stories, and festival…

Evidence: 54 • authority: 72

The folklore of India encompasses the folklore of the Republic of India and the Indian subcontinent. India is an ethnically and religiously diverse country. This generally refers to the Hindu traditions of the people of the country, but also includes the native folktales and mythos of various other ethnic and religious groups of India. Folk religion syncretism in Hinduism explains the rationale behind local religious practices and contains local myths that explain the customs and rituals. A lot of Indian folklore has survived as a result of oral transmission.

Evidence: 54 • authority: 80

A Treasury of African Folklore: The Oral Literature, Traditions, Myths, Legends, Epics, Tales, Recollections, Wisdom, Sayings, and Humor of Africa

Evidence: 54 • authority: 72

Folklore of the Low Countries, often just referred to as Dutch folklore, includes the epics, legends, fairy tales and oral traditions of the people of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Traditionally this folklore is written or spoken in Dutch or in one of the regional languages of these countries.

Evidence: 48 • authority: 72

Irish folklore (Irish: béaloideas) refers to the folktales, balladry, music, dance and mythology of Ireland. It is the study and appreciation of how people lived. The stories are usually told to explain the unexplainable. The folklore of Ireland includes banshees, fairies, leprechauns and other mythological creatures, and was typically shared orally by people among small communities. Many tales and legends were passed down from generation to generation, so were the dances and song in the observing of important occasions such as weddings, wakes, holidays, etc.

Evidence: 42 • authority: 80

Part I Oral Traditions, Myths and Legends

Evidence: 42 • authority: 80

The circulation and exchange of ideas, myths, legends, and oral traditions in the witchcraft trials of Italy

Evidence: 36 • authority: 72

Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, beliefs, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry. The information is mentally recorded by oral repositories, sometimes termed "walking libraries", who are usually also performers. Oral tradition is a medium of communication for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law and other knowledge across generations without a writing system, or in parallel to a writing system. It is the most widespread medium of human communication. Th…