folk custom
Handed-down community ritual
A folk custom is a traditional practice passed down informally within a community—something people do because their parents and grandparents did it, not because any authority mandates it.
Folk customs include holiday rituals, wedding traditions, regional recipes, and local superstitions: It's a folk custom in parts of Appalachia to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck.
The term emphasizes organic transmission through generations rather than official instruction.
- traditionCustom passed through generations
- ritualCeremonial set of actions
- heritageInherited cultural legacy
- ceremonyFormal event marking occasions
- festivalOrganized public celebration
old wives' tale · superstition · good luck charm · harvest · harvest moon · ancestral · village · village elder · celebration · maypole dance · wedding · wedding feast · burial · dance · feast · blessing · elder · handmade
- folklorefairy tales, fairytales, folktales, fairy tale, folktale
- customsholiday tradition, greeting, rituals, unspoken rules, cheek kissing
- local pridehometown pride, civic pride, regional pride, community roots, state pride
- Anglo-Saxon EnglandAnglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon, witenagemot, doom, Northumbria
folk customstatutory law
Legislature-made legal rules
written law · legal code · legislation · government mandate · state law
folk, custom, folks, folksy, folkish, folklore, folksong, folkway, customs