Arakin 4 kurs new 001 176. indd

The types of folklore
: verbal (proverbs, rhymes, myths, legends, 
folksongs, ballads); partly verbal (superstitions, customs and festivals, 
folkdances and games); non-verbal (folk gestures, folk music, folk 
architecture, handicrafts, folk costumes and foods).
8. 
Terms of partly verbal folklore according to their degree of 
generalization
: rites; ceremonies; rituals; customs; traditions; festivals.

---

107
9. 
Politically marked ceremonies and parliamentary conventions
: 
trooping the colour; opening of Parliament; the Lord Chancellor’s 
procession; the Gentleman of the Black Rod mission; spying the strang-
ers; Beefeaters searching the cellars of the Houses of Parliament, etc.
The Field of Folklore
Folklore comprises the unrecorded traditions of a people. The study 
of folklore records and analyses these traditions because they reveal the 
common life of the mind below the level of “high” or formal culture, which 
is recorded by civilizations as the learned heritage of their times.
Whenever, out of habit or inclination, the folk indulge in songs and 
dances, in ancient games, the merry-making, to mark the passing of the 
year or the usual festivities whenever in many callings the knowledge, 
experience, wisdom, skill, the habits and practices of the past are 
handed down by example or spoken word, by the older to the new 
generations, without reference to book, print, or school teacher, then 
we have folklore in its own perennial domain, at work as ever, alive and 
shifting, always apt to grasp and assimilate new elements on its way.
Folklore comprises traditional creations of peoples, primitive and 
civilized. These are achieved by using sounds, words, poetry and prose 
and include also folk beliefs or superstitions, customs and perfor-
mances, dances and plays.
A simple and workable arrangement of the types of folklore may be 
based on three modes of existence: folklore is either verbal (proverbs, 
rhymes, myths, legends, folksong, ballads), partly verbal (superstitions, 
customs and festivals, folk dances and games) or non-verbal (folk gestures, 
folk music, folk architecture, handicrafts, folk costumes and foods).
Folklore under various names has been with us ever since man 
began to take an objective look at his culture.
The study of folk life is that of man’s mental, spiritual and mate-
rial struggle towards civilization, of that “complex whole”, which 
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other 
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
Men of learning have in the last century or so gathered, classified 
and studied a vast body of materials appertaining to folk tradition.
Some of our surviving customs can trace their ancestry a very long 
way back, and have hitherto resisted all attempts to uproot them, many 
others have vanished for ever. Especially they disappeared during the 
last hundred and fifty years or so, for this was a period of great change 
everywhere, affecting traditional customs as much as anything else.

---

108
Customs involve both verbal and non-verbal elements that are 
traditionally applied in specific circumstances. But unlike supersti-
tions, true customs do not involve faith in the magical results of such 
application. Thus, the “customs” that incorporate traditional belief 
in the supernatural should properly be classified as superstition.
A