Abstract
Superstitious rituals and beliefs belonging to the children’s own traditions and owing little to adult influence include: ritual counting; divining sweethearts, etc.; confirming promises; sealing bargains; protective rituals, including those invoked when children duplicate the same words; making up after a quarrel; finding things; various procedures in connection with paving stone cracks and milk teeth; and miscellaneous beliefs associated with the weather, flowers, birds, insects, spiders, vehicles, etc. In discussing these, Nigel Kelsey follows the Opies in describing them as “half-belief”, which he regards as a very useful term that covers a wide range of practices, rituals, sayings, and beliefs. A subsection is devoted to superstitions concerning luck and related topics. The section concludes with examples of seasonal lore, which the author sees as being in decline.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alton, J.E., Widdowson, J.D.A. (2019). TRADITIONAL BELIEF AND PRACTICE. In: Alton, J., Widdowson, J. (eds) Games, Rhymes, and Wordplay of London Children. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02910-4_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02910-4_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02909-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02910-4
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)