Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Pagan Ritual Costumes

A lot of people think that historic Pagan traditions have been lost -- no, some are still in active practice.  Here are ritual costumes from tribal cultures around Europe.  Note that this is different from the robes of ritual garb; these costumes involve "dressing up as something" such as an animal, plant, or spirit.  I know some of my friends are crafters who work with animal parts such as fur and leather.  Go nuts.
Tags: crafts, ethnic studies, networking, pagan, photography, spirituality
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  • 5 comments
kelkyag

kelkyag

September 20 2013, 06:44:16 UTC 7 years ago

Those images are presented without context or explanation, and while some of the costumes come across as fairly generic animals some of them seem much more specific and stylized. Without doing a lot of research and asking questions about appropriateness and respect, I would want to think long and hard about cultural appropriation issues before reproducing any of them -- or their distinctive features -- out of context.
siege

siege

September 21 2013, 01:20:19 UTC 7 years ago

That's an excellent point, and worth thinking about.
I do like the pine man, though. (I'm pretty sure that's pine and not cedar.)
kelkyag

kelkyag

September 21 2013, 02:54:35 UTC 7 years ago

The tree man (the one with the black face makeup?) is close enough to "a tree" (of a particular type I don't recognize) with minimal stylization that I wouldn't feel so bad about that one.

It's a short-needled tree; I don't know those well, and tend to call them all firs until someone corrects me. :) The pines I'm familiar with (a small subset) are long-needled trees, with needles in clusters.
thnidu

thnidu

September 20 2013, 14:46:31 UTC 7 years ago

Go nuts.

And roots, and blossoms, and leaves, and twigs.
paka

paka

September 21 2013, 04:43:55 UTC 7 years ago

The part I think's interesting is the goat bells around the waist. A lot of these costumes make me think about Krampus too, obviously, and I remember some Krampus costumes having that detail. A lot of shamans' garb has metal bits to scare off evil - I know that there's an association of bells to do the same thing - and I know that belts are significant. So I'm pretty sure these are some sort of holdover.