Magic and the Supernatural - Lancaster University

Eglė Savickaitė
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success, luck and contemporary human being is mostly interested in a practical
side of magic. 17
At the end, we should answer the question if something has changed when we
entered the 21st century. G. Jahoda thought, ‘Many of the old beliefs are of course
disappearing with the spread of Western education and technology […].’ 18 But
human being was superstitious and still is. We did not invent something new,
unique. Nowadays practiced superstitions are quite similar to those used of old folk
because of its creation under traditional pattern. The need to believe in
supernatural, feel safe, predict some future events is common to human being.
Different kind of sorcery is known and practiced in contemporary world. For
example, sorcery related to love, death, air guessing. Mostly remain alive the forms
of old folk magic that are urgent to contemporary youth. I could not admit that the
subject of marriage or love nowadays became not live. A lot of young girls, even in
contemporary world, huddle themselves for if a boy loves her or not, what kind of
husband she will have. For example, on Christmas Eve girls draw out papers with
written boys’ names or zodiac signs on it from under the pillow. Perhaps only the
sphere of death became some kind of taboo nowadays. If earlier, for our ancestors,
death was understood as a naturally obvious thing, nowadays this theme or such
kind of sorcery is not acceptable, people avoid even to talk about that.
Now then the research of contemporary students’ superstitions perfectly
discloses the characteristics of contemporary or modern magic, testifies about the
tradition succession in contemporary urban space, gets into the light the traditional
aspects of magic in the modern society.
Notes
1 D. Albas and C. Albas, ‘Modern Magic: The Case of Examinations’, The
Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 4, 1989, p. 611.
2 K. Э Шумов, ‘Студенческие традисии’, Современный городской фольклор,
Москва, Российский государственный гуманитарный университет, 2003, pp.
166-167.
3 Ibid., p. 166.
4 Ibid., pp. 166��67.
5 M.N. MacDonald, ‘Magic and the Study of Religion’, Religiologiques, Vol. 11,
1995, p. 152.
6 N. Belmont, ‘Superstition and Popular Religion in Western Societies: The Genres
of Folklore’, Folklore: Critical Concepts, A. Dundes (ed), Vol.3, No. 51,
Routledge, London, 2005, p. 163-177.
7 VMU EM 1195 [The Manuscripts of Vytautas Magnus University Ethnology and
Folkloristics Departments].
8 VDU ER 1195; VDU ER 1394.
9 Belmont, op. cit., pp. 163-177.
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