Folklore

One very important source of knowledge is folklore. Lore means learning. Folklore is the learning or knowledge that has not been written down. It has been passed down orally from generation to generation.

What is interesting about folklore? While the main body of knowledge is passed down, the details may change from area to area. They are bound up with the customs and traditions of the society. It includes tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes and popular beliefs.

Every country has it's own body of folklore. Agricultural societies were full of folklore.In Europe folklore became a serious study in the 19th century with the rise of nationalism Sociologists study folklore. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected the stories and legends known in Germany and complied them as one book. The English translation is known as Children's and Household Tales. This was published in 1812. Now we can read lots of tales from all other lands.

When we read stories about these lands we can learn about the nature of the land, the climate, the animals and the living conditions of the time. There are many stories about fire in many lands. Aladin struck a match. That was magic. Amal Biso went to house to borrow some fire / light. The story of the Little Match Girl tells us how she sold matches in the cold wintry evenings.

These stories influence our lives too. The popularity of the teddy bears comes from the love of these stories. The bears in these tales are like human beings, kind and gentle. This attitude to bears is totally absent in other cultures. Some times a similar story may be told in two different lands. There is a story in Ummagga Jataka very similar to the story told by Bertolt Brecht in A Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Some habits customs and taboos, that is thing you must not do, also are parts of folk lore. The use of lime and turmeric for cleansing is one such example.

In ancient time when a person died and the dead body was taken out, the place was sprinkled with turmeric water. People returning from a funeral would rub them selves with lime. It is known that lime and turmeric have disinfecting properties. In ancient times in Sri Lanka people going in to forests, or crossing on to Aiiyanayaka a local god of the aria. However the custom had a very significant use or morning. The sprigs dying on these trees would indicate the path to the traveler. So, the belief that 'if you did not observe the rites of god Aiiyanayaka you would be lost, has a real meaning. Perhaps the fear of god would have made people not to forget to take this very essential precaution.