🌊 Watch out for the @theforemotherscafe.bsky.social / @folklorethursday.bsky.social / @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social mashup event this February! @helenerwin.bsky.social (The Lure of Water and Wood) will be speaking about Näcken folklore, water spirits and shape-shifters! Details after Christmas!

If you want a good book for the weekend, don't miss, A Treasury of British Folklore, by @deedeechainey.bsky.social A wonderful book! I found myself chuckling in recognition, i as it made me remember my mom's wart removing trick! Her neighbor refused to try it. 😅 #Folklore #BrittisthFolklore

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! 🎄❄️

❄️Mari Lwyd🐴 The Mari Lwyd is a tradition celebrated in South Wales over Christmas.The name means "Grey Mare". The tradition may have Pagan origins though was first recorded in 1800. The Mari Lwyd is a decorated horse's skull attached to a pole and draped in a white sheet 1/2. #FolkloreThursday

The Nordic Frau Holle was believed to originally be called Hulda, a deity that predates the Norse pantheon. She is associated with Winter, Yule season, and snowfall is said to be Frau Holle shaking out her feather mattress. art by A. Münzer (1870-1953) #FolkloreThursday

In many traditions, winter was the season when dreams grew stronger. Cold nights thinned the veil, and ancestors wandered into sleep with advice, warnings, or comfort. #FolkloreThursday Art: Zaira Dzhaubaeva

the Tsurara Onna, Icicle Woman, is created by the longing of a lonely man gazing at an icicle in the winter. He falls in love with his beautiful visitor and lives happily till spring comes when the snow and icicles melt and she disappears, leaving him heartbroken #FolkloreThursday art @yokai.com

#FolkloreThursday The Mari Lwyd is out and about this time in Wales. The tradition had all but died out until recent revivals have put it back front and centre in the Welsh Christmas calendar. Going house to house in Welsh villages, knocking on doors, rap-battling for booze... Pure Xmas! #marilwyd

No matter how cold you might think it gets at winter, that's nothing compared to a Fimbulwinter. In Norse mythology, Fimbulwinter is a terrible event that proceeds the end of the world, featuring 3 successive years without summer, during which all people & animals perish. Brrrrr 🥶 #FolkloreThursday

Sankta Lucia is this coming Saturday, I love that it celebrates light…and a fearsome witch who leads a procession of supernatural beings~we were also overjoyed to have been able to take in the full magic of Edinburgh Luciakör at Hexham Abbey this week…SO beautiful ✨ #folklorethursday ✨

Most accounts of Perchta concur on the major themes: she was associated with spinning, she traveled with a litany of others, and she loved slitting open the bellies of naughty children and stuffing them with straw or garbage. #folklorethursday 🔗👇 mythcrafts.com/2024/12/12/t...

Krampus’ name is probably from the German kramp/krampen, which means claw (though another possible etymology comes from the Bavarian word krampn, which means dead or rotten) #folklorethursday 🔗👇 mythcrafts.com/2024/12/05/g...

Many Alpine villages believed the wind at year’s end carried whispers from the dead. Doors were cracked open just a moment so loved ones could slip inside and warm themselves. #FolkloreThursday Art: Art Rave

One of my favourite festive stories to tell #folklorethursday friends is the tale of how the pine tree came to be covered in stars~I share it in my book The Time Traveller’s Herbal~it all begins in the heart of a forest on longest night… www.botanicafabula.co.uk/time-travell...

Perchta from Germanic folklore visits houses during the 12 Days of Christmas. She leaves silver coins for those who have been good, and slits the bellies of those who have not, stuffing them with straw. #FolkloreThursday

Were you at @unitedxr.eu in Brussels this week? Read the book that inspired our VR World, The Foremothers Cafe and was featured in an amazing talk by Helen. Read the book, then step into the story in Virtual Reality! #Readers #VR #HistoricalFiction

One more week until our #LuciaConcert at our cafe. Please join us at 1 pm ET 19.00 CET for our candlelit Yultetide concert in #VR On #ENGAGE

An exhibition for #Krampusnacht, #FolkloreThursday -ers!

Any time with a bit of #FolkloreThursday in it is the most wonderful time of the year! But doubly so when it's festive-themed 🥳 It is a simple joy to share stories with the marvellous @folklorethursday.bsky.social community 💙 Looking forward to it 😊

A piece of Christmas folklore which I always follow... is taking down your decorations by Twelfth Night otherwise you'll have bad luck. The way to avert the bad luck is keep the tinsel up all year. #FolkloreThursday

Boreas is the Greek god of the cold north wind, storms, and winter. He is brother to the other winds, and son of Eos, the dawn. Boreas is very strong, with a violent temper, and his most well-known myth is his abduction of the Athenian princess Oreithyia. 🎨Stefano della Bella #FolkloreThursday

“The old custom was to light the Yule log with a fragment of its predecessor, which had been kept throughout the year for the purpose; where it was so kept, the fiend could do no mischief.”   (Frazer “Golden Bough”)   🎨 H.M.Paget   #Folklorethursday

"A Christmas Dream. - Drawn By Kate Greenaway." The Illustrated London News 26.12.1874. On closer inspection it appears that there are some fairies playing snapdragon under her chair! #FolkloreThursday #Christmas #Fairy #Art #History #1870s

“Holle-peter, as well as Hersche, Harsche, Hescheklas, Euprecht, Eupper…, is among the names given to the muffled servitor who goes about in Holle's train at the time of the winter solstice” (Grimm) 🎨 Valin Mattheis #FolkloreThursday

🌿🌩️🌿A small sprig of Holly from the festive greenery brought into the home over Christmas, used to be kept all year to protect the house from lightning. #FolkloreThursday #FolkyFriday #FolkloreSunday

The Stiperstones in Shropshire are a series of distinctive rocks that include 'The Devil’s Chair'. The Devil was carrying the stones in his apron when a string broke, causing him to drop them. Annually, on 21st December, local ghosts meet at the stones for their spooky AGM 👻 #FolkloreThursday

Krampusnacht (Dec 5th) has just passed- I hope no naughty children ended up in the Krampus’s sack! Photo from the annual Krampus Run in Whitby a few years ago, so sad I couldn’t make it this year! #FolkloreThursday

In old Europe, a candle placed in a window on the longest nights guided wandering spirits home for warmth. Some said the flame burned brighter if an ancestor hovered nearby. #FolkloreThursday Art: Tracy Kiernan

Seeing frost encrusted spider webs evokes the Eastern European story of the Christmas spider. An impoverished family have no money to decorate their bare tree, but during the night the spider gets to work and the children wake to find a glittering tree festooned with webs. #FolkloreThursday 🎄

Join us this Thursday (11th December) for the final #FolkloreThursday of the year! Our hosts will share your winter and festive themed folklore at the following times (GMT): 9am-1pm 3.30-4.30pm 6.30-7.30pm Don't forget to include the hashtag! 🎄☃️🎁❄️

I was a little bit ill on Friday, and totally forgot I'd set up an exhibition for Krampusnacht! It features the video I made of last year's trip to watch the Krampuslauf in Welschnofen (Nova Levante), South Tyrol, in northern Italy near Bolzano. www.spatial.io/s/DeeDeeChai...

Who knew you'd find special door openers for pixies and tomtens on the NTTransit trains? Take note of the little sign at their eye level 😍 Happy travels tomtens and pixies! #Folklore @deedeechainey.bsky.social @folkloringpodcast.bsky.social @njtransit--nec.bsky.social

Had a fantastic winter walk to the Knight’s Wash House in Fontana at the weekend! #KnightsOfStJohn #Gozo #Malta #1530to1798 www.atlasobscura.com/places/knigh...

"Hunting down those who kill people to sell their body parts for 'magic charms'" 😳 www.bbc.com/news/article...

OK, folklore and mythology people, I’m looking for Merlin analogues/equivalents in European history, any suggestions?

Just had a fantastic chat with @helenerwin.bsky.social y.social about her event last night (which I sadly missed) with Sara Mapelli ('Tink'), a healer who dances with bees. You can check out her practice in this video and article from National Geographic. www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Join us next Tuesday, Nov 18 for an exciting evening with Bee Dancer Sara Mapelli Tink.

It was lovely to join such a fantastic group of women to discuss #inclusion and #storytelling in #VR this week at @helenerwin.bsky.social's fantastic space, @theforemotherscafe.bsky.social! Do check out Helen's excellent books and events about women's history and folklore. theforemotherscafe.com

Join me Paige Dansinger, Anju Bhargava, PhD, and @deedeechainey.bsky.social for an in depth conversation on how we can bring more women into spaces where equity is the focus not just locally, but globally. Tomorrow at 1 pm. Register here: immersive-x.de

My Neighbour Totoro stage show Extends its West End Run until August 2026 animeblurayuk.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/m...

Join us on Thursday!

Waterstones are offering 25% off my pre-orders of my next book, Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines! Enter code OCTOBER25 at checkout on the Waterstones website or app, valid until 17th October.

Do visit The Foremothers Cafe, it's a fantastic space!

This is The Foremothers Cafe's brand new account moving from @helenerwin.bsky.social author account to focus more on Virtual Reality. If you're in #XR and like #VR #Culture and #WomensHistory please follow us and help us grow.

So much fun yesterday feeding cookies to dragons and wolves with @helenerwin.bsky.social at #TheForemothersCafé! 🍪 This tiny dragon is definitely my favourite creature in VR. (The dancing demon is brilliant but creepy!) #FolkloreThursday #VR #EngageXR

This Saturday, from 8pm, I’m giving a short talk for the wonderful @edgeways.bsky.social group. It’s free, but attendees do need to register beforehand. I’m really looking forward to it, hopefully see some of you there 🙂 tinyurl.com/NewEdgewaysR...

Out now! The Fairy Tales of Jim Henson Keeping the best place by the fire By Andrea Wright A complete and chronological overview of Henson's career from the late 1950s to his death in 1990 bit.ly/4mcQtCV #JimHenson #TheMuppetShow #FairyTales #ScreenStudies

Hey @deedeechainey.bsky.social, @willowwinsham.bsky.social & @johnnymains.co.uk - we've made it to Tarrytown NY! We're sat on the shelves of the lovely Transom Books...! #HudsonValley #Booksky #Folklore

'Essential reading for understanding our multi-folkloric present.' @deedeechainey.bsky.social 'Folklore: A journey through the past and present' by @odavies9.bsky.social & @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social, coming soon. #FolkloreThursday

On Being Heard in the #ImmersiveWeb: A Journey Through Fairy Tale, Embodiment and #Inclusion Fairy tales hold a mirror to social norms. #XR will, too—when we build tools that amplify all voices. open.substack.com/pub/deedeech...