FOLK LORE
One every important source pf knowledge is folk lore. Lore means learning. Folk lore is the learning or knowledge that has not-been weittendown.It has been passed down orally from generation to generation.
White is interesting about folk lore? 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, oralhistory, proverbs, iokes and popular beliefs.
Every country has its own body of folk lore.Agriclutural societies were full of folk lore. In Europe folk lore became a serious study in the 19th centure with the rise of nationalisam.sociologisgists study folk lore. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected the stories and legends known in Germany and compiled them as one book. The English translation is known as children’s and house hold 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 lands, the climate, the animals and the living conditions of the time. There are many stories about fire in many lands. Aladdin struck a match. That was magic.Amal biso went to a house to borrow some firel 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 tails 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 Jathakaya very similar to the story told by Bertolt brecht in A Cauca Sian chalk circle.
Some habits costomes and taboos, that is things you must not do, also are part of folk lore. The use of lime and turmeric for cleansing is one such example.
In ancient times 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 themselves whith lime.
It is now known that lime and turmeric have disinfecting properties. In ancient times in Sri Lanka people going in to forests, or crossings on to an un known land would break a spring and hang it on a tree. It was considered as an offering to Aiiyanayaka, alocal god of the area. However the custom has a very significant use or meaning. The springs dying on these trees would in dicate the path to the travelier.So, the belief that ‘if you did not observe the tites of god Aiiyanayake 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.
M.D.Harshani Pradeepika
Pradeepika6@gmail.com
Harshani.pradeepika@yahoo.com
