Some Chinese folklore for #PhantomsFriday

That's the end of another epic #FolkloreThursday 🐉 Today's theme was "Folklore of the Animal Kingdom!” This is @shanonsinn.bsky.social signing off - your last host today. Thank you for sharing your lore about animals! It was a wild ride hehe ✨ 19th CE Wett-Turnen

If a cat jumped over a corpse in its coffin, it was said the soul of the dead belonged to the devil or that they would return as one of the walking undead... #FolkloreThursday

There have been countless stories of sea serpents in the waters around Vancouver Island, since time immemorial. In the last century, nonIndigenous communities have given some of them names. Victoria’s Cadborosaurus or "Caddy" being the best known 🐉 E.D. Moyer and Thos H Guptil #FolkloreThursday

Forget St. Pat, the 17th March belongs to St Gertrude of Nivelles - patron saint of cats, invoked by the souls of purgatory and those troubled by mice... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Carolee Clark

The monster cat, Cath Palug, has been associated with King Arthur since the 11th century. Some even say that the legendary king met his end after a fierce fight with the creature. #FolkloreThursday 🎨Joanna Lisoweic, from Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines by Willow Winsham

In Swedish folklore, a fungus known as witch's butter was made from the vomit of a witch's cat...! #FolkloreThursday 📷Daniel Greenwood

Hello #FolkloreThursday 🐉 That was @willowwinsham.bsky.social reposting your lore before the break! I'm @shanonsinn.bsky.social our last host today -- for the next one hour 🙈 🙉 🙊 Today's theme is "Folklore of the Animal Kingdom” 1912 Arthur Rackham

Welcome back to today's animal kingdom themed #FolkloreThursday! @willowwinsham.bsky.social here for the next hour of of fabulous folklore! 🎨Joanna Lisoweic, from Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines by Willow Winsham

Wyraj – according to Slavic beliefs a fabulous land where birds fly away for winter and from which spring comes, and also (in folklore) from which storks arrive carrying children. Departing to Wyraj and the birds returning from it in spring were identified #FolkloreThursday 🧵

Aconitum spp. (Wolfsbane, Monkshood, Aconite) is said to be born from the toxic drooling of Cerberus, the guard dog of the Underworld in Hellenism. #FolkloreThursday

In Ukrainian folk belief orange cats bring good luck and abundance to the household (my family had a parade of beloved oranges over the years). Though orange cats are famously good natured and loving, the poor soul in this painting has reached the end of his tether #ArtHistory #Art #FolkloreThursday

“In former times people said if a crow hovered or circled above a person’s head, it was a sign of decapitation.” (Elias Owen “Welsh Folk-Lore”, 1887) 🎨 Catherine Hyde #folklorethursday

#FolkloreThursday In Scotland stonechats were believed to be in league with the Devil, carrying a drop of his blood and in constant conversation with him with their calls. If you destroyed their nest you would die of a disease and if you stole their eggs the Devil would break your back in revenge.

Time flies when you're sharing great folklore! @willowwinsham.bsky.social signing off now, but #FolkloreThursday will return at 6.30pm BST with @shanonsinn.bsky.social for more folklore of the animal kingdom! 🎨Trisha M Shears

Join us Thur 28th May for the next hosted #FolkloreThursday! The theme is folklore of the animal kingdom and our hosts will share your posts to the hashtag at the following times BST: 9am-1pm 3.30pm-4.30pm 6.30pm-7.30pm 🎨Paul de Vos, Noah's Ark.

Lost Fairytale rediscovered

"I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge". CS Lewis describing CO. Down and the Mournes, the inspiration for Narnia. #BookWormSat 📷Nigel Killeen

It’s a valley where you feel completely safe, Moomintroll told her. You feel happy when you wake up and it’s a pleasure to fall asleep at night. There’s a climbing tree where I’m going to build a house and a completely secret place that I shall show you. Comet in Moominland Tove Jansson #BookWormSat

That evening, the dark flat streets of New York, the tomorrow of work, the milk bottle dropped and broken in her sink, became unimportant. The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith 📷Times Square with Pigeons - Frank Oscar Larson #BookWormSat

On Easter Sunday in England, people once arose early to witness the sun dancing... #EasterSunday #Folklore

In Scottish lore, folk born on Good Friday not only have the ability to see ghosts but to order them about... #PhantomsFriday

A maritime superstition said it was unlucky to “save a stranger from the sea” for “he’ll turn your enemy”. There was a belief that the one who saved the other, would soon be drowned themselves... #MorbidMarch 🎨Niss

Children claim it a Wood Sprite bones. None of them will admit to being afraid of it, but in all their frantic bonefire gathering – Pale Eve, Midsummer and Guy Fawkes – they leave it alone. Even in death, Wood Sprites infest their imaginations, Demand terror tithe. – Joanna Vickers #VOH

Balls of light have been reported hovering over various stretches of water on the Scottish lochs, sometimes stationary, then moving fast and dropping down into the water. In local lore such lights were thought to foretell death, and upon seeing them, fisherman would stay on dry land... #MorbidMarch

Whitby Jet became THE most integral piece of Victorian mourning jewellery. Following the death of Prince Albert 50 jet workshops swelled to 204... #MorbidMarch 🎨Jules Émile Saintin

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. . . . There’s fennel for you, and columbines. Hamlet, act 4, scene 5. #ShakespeareWeek #BookWormSat 🎨John Everett Millais

‘Hell is empty and all the devils are here.’ ~ The Tempest, William Shakespeare. #BookswormSat 🖼️ Arthur Rackham

'You have witchcraft in your lips.' -Shakespeare 🎨Henrietta Rae (detail) #BookWormSat

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.” ✍️William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream #BookWormSat 🎨Felice Casorati

Tattoos all had symbolic meanings. The swallow represented how many miles the sailor had travelled and, if they drowned, would also fly their soul to heaven. The anchor represented stability, strength and safety... 📸Todd Walker #MorbidMarch

The fantastic legend of The Lady Lovibond is the tale of a ghost ship which reappears every 50 years off the coast of Kent. The ship was said to have been deliberately steered off course by the first mate who was in love with the captain's wife... 🎨Alfred Kubin #MorbidMarch

Inveterate practical joker Charles Vance Millar had weird clauses in his will including leaving a house to three men who hated each other as long as they lived together; and a fortune to the Toronto woman who gave birth to the most children in 10 years - known as The Great Stork Derby! #MorbidMarch

Good Friday and Old Lady Day rarely coincide and 25 March was the day they executed Margaret Clitherow, for harbouring Catholic priests in 1586. When the three dates align something strange happens in York's Shambles. Death and the scent of Daisies. Read more in today's #DarkSpringtide tale below

The aroma of roses repels vampires and the petals burn them like acid. Placing a rose on a grave helps trap a vampire underground... 🎨Munch #WyrdWednesday

Would you like to read your own obituary? PT Barnum did. On his death bed and in a final act of showmanship, he persuaded The Evening Sun in New York to publish his obituary whilst he was still alive. The paper did acknowledge this fact though! #MorbidMarch

In Jamaican folklore when a child lost one of their teeth, the rolling calf would come rattling chains to take the tooth AND the child away! But the clever child would put their tooth into a tin can and shake it. The noise would keep the rolling calf away... #MorbidMarch 🎨Picasso

Sweet basil in Italy was the flower of lovers while in ancient Greece it was an herb of hatred... #MorbidMarch 🎨Isabella and the Pot of Basil - John White Alexander

Cauls (pieces of the birth membrane) were rare and highly prized by mariners who bought them for quite high prices. They were believed to protect the owner from drowning... 🎨Alma-Tadema #MorbidMarch

#BookwormSat In the Saga of Noggin the Nog story about the Ice Dragon, by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, the Nogs pursue Nogbad through the dark forest of Troleskow, where there are no paths as the trees move about when no one is watching them.

“Oh, Trees, Trees, Trees,” said Lucy (though she had not been intending to speak at all). “Oh, Trees, wake, wake, wake. Don't you remember it? Don't you remember me? Dryads and Hamadryads, come out, come out to me.” Prince Caspian - CS Lewis #BookWormSat 🎨 Pauline Baynes

In Scottish lore, the Bean-nighe (Fairy Woman) was found in all the lonely places washing the linen of those about to die. If a person caught her unawares, she would tell them all what would happen after life. But if she saw them first, they lost the power of their limbs... 🎨Brian Froud #MorbidMarch

✨🌱🌞🌱✨ happy spring equinox, like a seed, slowly warm, slowly stretch, slowly step ✨

In Italy & Spain on Mid Lent Sunday there was a Spring custom known as "Segare la vecchia" or sawing the old woman. Boys made an effigy of the oldest woman in the village which represented winter, then sawed it in half. The rasping sound of the saw was said to drive away evil spirits... #MorbidMarch

Parsley germinates so slowly, it was said it visited Satan nine times before appearing! If parsley is transplanted on any day other than Good Friday, a family death especially that of the gardener, was once believed to follow... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Hugo Simberg

Since time immemorial, the new moon has represented new cycles. Traditionally, it was for invocation, planting and building. In East Canada, the third day was for pruning trees. In North Carolina, it was bad luck to see the new moon first through tree branches #FolkloreThursday 1910 Hans Thoma

In art, blanching is when a formerly clear and transparent surface becomes white or opaque... #MorbidMarch 🎨Poliakoff (I think - it was uncredited!)

Marafonas, Portuguese faceless cloth dolls, play an important part during the Festas de Santa Cruz in May. But what if one wakes early, on the eve of the Spring Equinox? We go to the Portugal's Castelo Branco district and find out, in our 19th #darkspringtide tale. Read it below 🎨 bloodborne