folklore

The Folklore Tapes Ceremonial Counties Vol. V covers Norfolk and West Yorkshire, courtesy of Pefkin and Dean McPhee. If this quality is maintained throughout the series, we will have a stunning and important body of work on our hands.

Through 100 years of film and TV footage, Arcadia explores the changing face of the British countryside and our relationship to the land and each other. It takes in folk carnivals and masked parades, harvesting, communes and raves, mechanisation, fires, floods and much more.

Ben Gazur, author of ‘A Feast of Folklore – talks to us about ‘Witch Cakes’…There are two main types of “witch cakes” that occur in folklore. One is more palatable than the other, as we shall see, but neither is something you would want with a cup of tea.

Folk Radio UK have teamed up with Treadwells Bookshop for an online workshop, led by Hannah Sanders, that explores occulted meanings lurking in the shadows of the British folk song tradition.

Ben Gazur, author of ‘A Feast of Folklore – From witch cake to wassailing, strange stories of Britain’s food’ talks to us about ‘Soul Cakes’. If you have prepared for Allhallowstide then you will have a pile of Soul Cakes ready to reward the singers.

A brief look at the hare in folklore and folk song. From superstitions and omens, to witches and shapeshifting…and their other names: the skidaddler, the nibbler, the slabber, the starer, the wood-cat, the purblind, the furze cat, the skulker, the bleary-eyed, the wall-eyed, the glance-aside and hedge-springer.

On the latest video from Stealing Sheep for Apparition they head into the British Countryside for a spot of Morris dancing. It’s a beautiful video also featuring some other folkloric appearances.

The Month of May – one of tradition and ritual. One of the most famous is the Obby ‘Oss festival of Padstow in Cornwall. Watch this short film by Alan Lomax, Peter Kennedy and George Pickow about the festival from 1953. Brilliant!