#FolktaleWeek2020 Day 2 Picks: Ritual

by @marliesabramowski 
(We wonder if it isn't a ritual for every artist doing illustration to create their version of Red Riding Hood! We're not complaining. It remains astonishing how many millions of ways this story can be shown in an image and remain recognizable!)

 Today's prompt is RITUAL.

(To learn more about #FolktaleWeek2020, click HERE to read our first post on it this week. Please follow the host group on Instagram for the latest updates. They are: @jennifermpotter, @sofiamoore_studio, @deborah.j.stein, @nicallanart, @laure_illustrations, @rachaelschaferdesigns, @debrastyer, @louve.draws, @matejalukezic, @thebrotherskent, @chelslarss, and @tanja_stephani "Folktale Week 2020 was developed by a group of talented artists from all around the world. Be sure to check out their profiles for inspiration:")

by Majalin
In the old days there was a ritual to put out a bowl of porridge to the gnome on Christmasnight. The gnome worked hard on the farm but if you weren’t nice to him he could become angry and things could get ugly. If he got a butter on the top, he would work extra hard.

by Maureen Bales Art
“She had a magic mirror, and every morning she used to stand in front of it and gaze at her reflection and say: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is the fairest of all?” (Philip Pullman’s Fairytales from the Brothers Grimm).

by Laura Chamberlain Illustration
 Ritual for the new spring for #folktaleweek2020
As the first plants poke though the snow, the residents of this little town gather to build giant effigies to welcome back the animals of mountain from their winter slumber. As they work they sing to encourage life to return to their mountains.
Each animal that comes to inspect these offerings are celebrated and donned with their own wreath in the hopes that they will return with the rest of their family for a more bountiful year. Of course, it’s easier to give a wreath to a sheep than a goose, but that doesn’t stop them from trying! 

by Fantafumino - Silvia Vanni Art
During the eve of San Giovanni night (23/24 june ) various herbs and flowers were gathered, then at sunset they where set in a bowl of water and left outside all night long. By doing that, the magical dew of the night would have impregnated them. This ritual was used to prepare San Giovanni water, a magical water it was said to have the power to chase away diseases and evil eye. - Day two: Ritual

by Lena Zolotareva

@jess_harkey

by Denise Burden art

by Otuscops
It’s an ancient ritual of getting arcane knowledge and skills.
Adolescents were sent for indoctrination into the forest or even further away, where they learned the secret skills of turning into animals or understanding the language of birds. And the important part of their learning was the symbolical, or not quite, burning themselves in the fire or in the boiling water.

by Laure_Illustrations
The little girl grows up with her mother, a seamstress. She is perfectly happy playing with buttons and making daisy chains. Her mother makes the most beautiful little dresses for her. Every night before bed, she shows her, her latest creation. It’s their own little bedtime ritual. It’s a good life. But something is about to go terribly wrong...

by Bandaminta
Have you heard about julbocken, or Joulupukki: The Christmas Goat of the North? Although in many places a white bearded certain someone overtook his place, there are still many tales and traditions surrounding this creature of the Nordic winters. To some he brings gifts, in other traditions he goes door-to-door asking for food and drink. 

by @daryamorozz
Ritual. The rite of tying ribbons and scraps of fabric to trees existed in the archaic past of all Turkic-Mongol peoples of Central Asia and South Siberia. Now it still exists in Altai and is called dyalama or kyira. There are several interpretations of this ritual: firstly, peoples made a wish in places of power, secondly, this is how they made offerings to spirits, and thirdly, different knots on the ribbons existed as a way of communication between nomads.

by Elena Yampolsky (Yelensky Illustration)
Ritual - Bayun the Cat in Russian fables can lull the human to sleep and he can eat them. He also can cure illness. Here is a young Shaman girl who come to the forest for her initiation ritual. She has to meet up giant Cat , learn his wisdom and stay alive.

by @kathwaman
Day Two Prompt: Ritual - Illustration depicts the Ritual of Twelfth Night - Teach your children about the unique rituals and rich customs associated with the Twelfth Night Festival and the Epiphany. Examine the importance of Twelfth Night traditions like: A cake, a bean, and a King. See how Shakespeare’s version tackles fundamental and often universal themes like love as a cause of suffering, the uncertainty of gender and the folly of ambition.

by Polina Bakalina (@apolin.art)
Remembering the scene from Meterlink’s play “the blue bird”