|
 What
is folklore? The term "folklore" was first coined by
W.J. Thomas in 1846 to refer to the ballads,
folktales and customs of the rural past. Nowadays
"folklore" is taken to refer to the everyday culture
and cultural traditions of all social groups - young
as well as old, urban as well as rural, ourselves as
well as others.
In 1942 Sean O'Suillaebhain wrote: "It was the
general opinion until recent years that fairy tales
and superstitions formed the main, if not the only,
material to be collected from oral sources.
Developments in these latter years, especially in
the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, have,
however, opened up wider vistas, with the result
that Folklore is now accepted as being concerned
with the lore of man and of all his numerous
activities: accounts of the houses people lived in,
the dress they wore, the food they ate, their social
dealings with one another, their education and
religious life, their festivals and amusements,
births, marriages and deaths, together with beliefs
in the afterworld, as well as innumerable other
facets of human life, have been brought within the
sphere of Folklore".
In his book "Studies in Maltese Folklore", Joseph
Cassar Pullicino wrote: "Maltese folklore preserves
the soul of the past, embodying the ways of thought,
the mode of life and the moral code of preceding
centuries. This national heritage of lore and
traditions is the product of simple, psychological
reaction to the historical environments and to the
various culture-contacts which our people have
experienced in the past".
This is what Maltese folklore is all about,
exploring the history, literature, folktales, old
wives tales, children's rhymes and games,
traditional medicine, nicknames, birth and death
rituals, feasts, and old customs from Malta and
Gozo. The success of this site depends on the amount
of contributions received from its readers. So
please start sending in your contributions and share
with us your thoughts, stories, old photographs and
anything you think is appropriate to this site. |
