What is folklore? At first the answer seems simple. Any third-grader will say that this is creativity, wisdom, knowledge of the people. More advanced kids will even report that the term was first coined in 1846 by William Thomson, meaning any manifestation of the spiritual culture of the people.
However, everything is not so simple. For example, scholars in the UK understand this term as any manifestation of folk spirituality. They are sure that English folklore is not only verbal or song creation, but also folk crafts, dances, and beliefs. In a word, all that is rich in the history of the nation, all its traditions. In other words, folklore in England is considered to be experience and knowledge transmitted orally.
Russian scientists think differently. To the question what is folklore, they answer briefly: "Oral folk art." Only verbal forms belong to Russian: riddles, jokes, fairy tales, epics, jokes, proverbs, sayings, epic works.
However, folk art is not limited to them. Probably the most mysterious genre among all nationalities are conspiracies. They do not go to school, and until recently, even talking about this kind of creativity was not accepted. However, people have always sought to find out what awaits them in the future, change their fate, attract money, and bewitch a loved one. To do this, they came up with hundreds of verbal forms, accompanied by special actions - rituals. Chur me! - we pronounce in adverse situations, sometimes without suspecting that by such a conspiracy we scare away unclean forces from ourselves .
Speaking about what folklore is, one cannot ignore another layer - wedding poetry. Actually, the word "poetry" is not very appropriate here, because wedding ceremonies include a lot of proverbs, sayings, ritual songs, jokes. All these forms are united by one thing - the desire to secure the future family, to extend and strengthen the clan, to achieve an arrangement of higher forces. “Pain, Marya Irodovna, leave today, come yesterday,” many generations spoke of teeth like this. Some did this, believing in the success of the conspiracy. Others cast a spell out of habit or "just in case."
Proverbs, jokes, sayings of all countries are brought together by form: concise, but embodying great folk wisdom, knowledge, and experience gained over centuries. The jokes besides these characteristics are distinguished by their cheerful, sometimes taunting, sometimes witty content. However, there were other jokes. They were called "annoying tales." Such jokes didn’t have an end, and this was what made others laugh. “Grandfather Yasha lived - a linen shirt. Like my fairy tale? You like it and I like it. I was myself ... ". These pesky tales were further developed, today they are familiar to any child like the game "Buy an elephant."
Jokes for children often did not differ in coherent content. Their task is to calm the baby, draw his attention to the sound phrases. “Ay, dudu, dudu, dudu, a raven is sitting on an oak tree,” even today's mothers sing to babies, sometimes unaware that they have long been known among the people. The sound "y", imitating the noise of the wind, perfectly calms the children. This observation has been transmitted word of mouth for hundreds of years, acquiring different verbal forms.
Today there are other, relatively "young" genres: thieves, urban, student folklore. These forms arose with the development of society. They are still not studied properly.
Speaking about what folklore is (the expression "folklore" is excessive, it is a tautology), I would like to note that the oral creativity of any nation has the same characteristics. This is, first of all, anonymity, collectivity, variability, improvisation.
Folklore is a folk experience, wisdom and knowledge, embodied in certain forms and genres of oral works.