Crystal Ponti

Michaelmas daisies bloomed as coins changed hands. Folklore said to place one in your hat for luck when buying stock. Rural superstition twined through trade like ivy on a fence post. #FolkyFriday

Even today, echoes of the fairs remain. Autumn craft markets, cider festivals, and county fairs still carry the hum of barter and the smell of hay. All remnants of a time when the year turned in music and trade. #FolkyFriday

Art: Karl Weysser

Old market songs carried the rhythm of hooves and haggling. Ballads like “Strawberry Fair” and “The Sheep-Shearing Feast” kept the spirit of autumn gatherings alive long after the carts were gone. #FolkyFriday

PumpkInferno at Upper Canada Village Award-winning Pumpkinferno is returning this fall. Take a tour through this spectacular outdoor art exhibit of over 7,000 hand-carved pumpkins all lit at night.

#FolkyFriday 🎃🕯️
"Light up your fall at PumpkInferno! 9,000+ carved pumpkins blaze a haunting trail at Upper Canada Village, ON, thru Nov 1. Folklore whispers: Jack’s spirit guards the glow! ##PumpkInferno #Ontario #Canada 🍁
www.uppercanadavillage.com/event/pumpki...

Autumn markets once rang with the bleats of sheep, the bellow of cattle, and the hum of barter. Fair day was more than commerce. It was also reunion, gossip, courtship, and the year’s last great dance. #FolkyFriday

Art: Sebastian Vrancx

In Irish tradition, Puck Fair crowned a wild goat king. The captured animal presided over days of revelry before being released to the hills. A festival both pagan and pastoral, half sacred, half satire. #FolkyFriday

Goose Fairs dotted the British calendar. Nottingham’s still survives, but once they filled market greens across the country, where farmers brought flocks for sale and townsfolk feasted on roast goose and ale. #FolkyFriday

The Lammas and Harvest Fairs were once the social heart of the countryside. Pipers played, apples were pressed, and livestock changed hands. Beneath the trade was gratitude; a farewell to summer’s plenty. #FolkyFriday

In Romania, Hoia Baciu Forest bends trees into spirals and circles barren of growth. Locals call it the “Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania,” where lights flicker, time warps, and shadows move without bodies. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

In the United States, Waverly Hills Sanatorium saw thousands die of tuberculosis. Visitors still hear gurneys rolling, children laughing, and doors creaking where no breath remains. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

In Scotland, Mary King’s Close is a buried street beneath Edinburgh. Families once trapped by plague were sealed inside. Their whispers are said to drift through the walls centuries later. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

Aokigahara Forest lies at the base of Mount Fuji, hushed beneath thick trees that swallow sound. Known as Japan’s “Sea of Trees,” it is both beautiful and sorrowful; a place where many have vanished. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

The Tower of London is a fortress of ghosts. Anne Boleyn walks headless near the chapel, the Princes in the Tower cry unseen tears, and guards tell of footsteps where no living man treads. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

On Poveglia Island in Italy, victims of plague were once burned by the thousands. Later, it became an asylum. Locals refuse to go near it. Fishermen swear their nets sometimes dredge up bones. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

Thank you! :)

The Paris Catacombs wind for miles beneath the city, lined with the bones of over six million souls. Their silent skulls form walls of the forgotten, and visitors whisper that voices still echo in the dark. #31DaysofHalloween #31DaysofHaunting

Folklore says phantom ships sail still. The Flying Dutchman, doomed to roam forever, appears as a glowing omen of storm and death. Mariners feared its sight more than the waves themselves. #WyrdWednesday

Art: Albert Pinkham Ryder

Hindu temples often use murti, sacred deity dolls or idols, as vessels for divine presence. Rituals treat them as living beings, with offerings of food, clothing, and care. #LegendaryWednesday

The immrama were voyages of saints and heroes into the Otherworld. Some ships found islands of joy, others of terror - seas as thresholds between life and death. #WyrdWednesday

In Slavic tradition, motanka dolls were made without faces to protect households. With no eyes or mouth, spirits could not enter. They became guardians against both envy and evil. #LegendaryWednesday

The Arctic itself is a haunted expanse. Franklin’s doomed expedition sought the Northwest Passage, but ice and scurvy swallowed the crew. Their ghosts linger in stories and naval lore alike. #WyrdWednesday

'Child's Play': Chucky and the Horror of Creepy Dolls - The Atlantic The 1988 film introduced an iconic villain in Chucky—just one of many living toys that have haunted cinema for decades.

Horror cinema gave us the possessed doll. From Chucky to Annabelle, folklore fused with fear to create dolls that walk, whisper, and kill, carrying childhood’s comfort into nightmare. I wrote about this several years ago: www.theatlantic.com/...

#LegendaryWednesday

In poetry, Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner makes the sea a haunted stage. Albatrosses, curses, ghostly crews; it is a voyage where the unknown punishes hubris. #WyrdWednesday

Art: Gustave Doré

Ancient Rome used poppets of wax and clay for curses or blessings. These dolls were vessels, carrying wishes to gods or binding oaths in secret. #LegendaryWednesday

Erik the Red, Leif’s father, had already braved exile to colonize Greenland. His own saga is one of banishment and survival, showing how perilous journeys often begin with broken ties. #WyrdWednesday

Art: Carl Rasmussen

In Mexico, the Island of the Dolls is a shrine of horror and grief. Hundreds of dolls hang from trees, left by a caretaker who believed they appeased the spirit of a drowned child. #LegendaryWednesday

Leif Eriksson sailed west around the year 1000 and found Vinland, a land of grapes and forests. The sagas make it sound both wondrous and dangerous, a liminal shore where luck could turn to doom. #WyrdWednesday

Art: Christian Krohg

In Japanese folklore, the Okiku doll is said to grow human hair. Housed in a temple, it belonged to a little girl who died young. Visitors swear the strands lengthen year by year, alive with her spirit. #LegendaryWednesday

The Norse sagas are filled with voyages gone awry. Sea serpents, whirlpools, and ghostly islands awaited sailors who dared to sail too far. The ocean was not just water but mystery. #WyrdWednesday

The voodoo doll is more complex than pop culture portrays. In Haitian Vodou, dolls and effigies honor spirits or guide prayer. They've been twisted into objects of fear, but their roots are devotional. #LegendaryWednesday

Art: GM Binder