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deedeechainey.bsky.social
DeeDeeChainey
@deedeechainey.bsky.social
1.9K followers 990 following 210 posts
Storyteller. Heritage botherer. @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social & @folklorethursday.bsky.social founder; #TreasuryOfFolklore author. #XR and #UX enthusiast. https://linktr.ee/deedeechainey 🇲🇹🇬🇧
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deedeechainey.bsky.social
DeeDeeChainey @deedeechainey.bsky.social · Jul 27
On Being Heard in the #ImmersiveWeb: A Journey Through Fairy Tale, Embodiment and #Inclusion

Fairy tales hold a mirror to social norms. #XR will, too—when we build tools that amplify all voices.

open.substack.com/pub/deedeech...
On Being Heard in the Immersive Web: A Journey Through Fairy Tale, Embodiment and Inclusion
Fairy tales hold a mirror to social norms. XR will, too - when we build tools that amplify all voices
open.substack.com
deedeechainey.bsky.social
Join #FolkloreThursday, @theforemotherscafe.bsky.social and @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social on Thu 19 Feb (1pm UK / 8am New York) for this FREE ONLINE event!

Explore Näcken, a captivating Swedish water creature, in this talk from @helenerwin.bsky.social!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/water-spir...
Water Spirits and Shape-Shifters: Creatures of Lakes, Rivers and Seas
Join us online for a talk from Helen Lundström Erwin exploring Näcken, a captivating creature from Scandinavian water folklore.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
January 23, 2026 at 3:14 PM
deedeechainey.bsky.social
Listen to this fantastic talk from @helenerwin.bsky.social at @unitedxr.eu about #inclusion and a world without borders.

Helen talks: distant friends, #folklore, #history, #women's rights and how #VR brings all of this together.

Utterly brilliant!
#FolkloreThursday

youtu.be/aGlpyCugZnY?...
There Are No Borders in The Metaverse: Virtual Reality Cultural Exchange with Helen LUNDSTRÖM ERWIN
YouTube video by UnitedXR Europe
youtu.be
January 17, 2026 at 1:02 PM
deedeechainey.bsky.social
🌊 Watch out for the @theforemotherscafe.bsky.social / @folklorethursday.bsky.social / @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social mashup event this February!

@helenerwin.bsky.social (The Lure of Water and Wood) will be speaking about Näcken folklore, water spirits and shape-shifters!

Details after Christmas!
A figure in traditional Scandinavian clothing sits by a misty waterfall playing a fiddle, depicting the Näcken from Swedish folklore. (Image: B Johan Tirén)
December 22, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
helenerwin.bsky.social
If you want a good book for the weekend, don't miss, A Treasury of British Folklore, by @deedeechainey.bsky.social
A wonderful book! I found myself chuckling in recognition, i as it made me remember my mom's wart removing trick!

Her neighbor refused to try it. 😅
#Folklore #BrittisthFolklore
A Treasury of British Folklore: Maypoles, Mandrakes and Mistletoe
Amazon.com: A Treasury of British Folklore: Maypoles, Mandrakes and Mistletoe eBook : Chainey, Dee Dee, National Trust Books: Kindle Store
www.amazon.com
December 12, 2025 at 9:16 PM
deedeechainey.bsky.social
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! 🎄❄️
December 12, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
folkloretwitcher.bsky.social
❄️Mari Lwyd🐴

The Mari Lwyd is a tradition celebrated in South Wales over Christmas.The name means "Grey Mare". The tradition may have Pagan origins though was first recorded in 1800. The Mari Lwyd is a decorated horse's skull attached to a pole and draped in a white sheet 1/2. #FolkloreThursday
A more recent coloured photograph of the Mari Lwyd. A horse's skull mounted on a stick. A white sheet is draped over the stick on which rests a black saddle. The ears are made out of cut out gold paper and the eye is a gold rimmed circular disc with a silver centre. There are green, white and red ribbons with bells pinned to the jaw of the horse's skull. A vintage black and white photograph of five gentlemen with the Mari Lwyd. They are standing outside at the doorway of a house. Two of the men are wearing bowler hats; two are wearing flat caps - all four are facing the doorway while another man who carrying a miner's lantern, smoking a pipe and wearing a light coloured fedora, faces the group. One of the flat cap wearing men is also holding a miner's lantern.
December 11, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
bookcat.bsky.social
The Nordic Frau Holle was believed to originally be called Hulda, a deity that predates the Norse pantheon. She is associated with Winter, Yule season, and snowfall is said to be Frau Holle shaking out her feather mattress.

art by A. Münzer (1870-1953)
#FolkloreThursday
December 11, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
crystalponti.bsky.social
In many traditions, winter was the season when dreams grew stronger. Cold nights thinned the veil, and ancestors wandered into sleep with advice, warnings, or comfort. #FolkloreThursday

Art: Zaira Dzhaubaeva
December 11, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
yokaiparade.bsky.social
the Tsurara Onna, Icicle Woman, is created by the longing of a lonely man gazing at an icicle in the winter. He falls in love with his beautiful visitor and lives happily till spring comes when the snow and icicles melt and she disappears, leaving him heartbroken #FolkloreThursday art @yokai.com
art by Matthew Meyer of a woman in traditional Japanese dress holding an umbrella with icicles hanging from it in a snowstorm
December 11, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
davidwjlloyd.bsky.social
#FolkloreThursday The Mari Lwyd is out and about this time in Wales. The tradition had all but died out until recent revivals have put it back front and centre in the Welsh Christmas calendar. Going house to house in Welsh villages, knocking on doors, rap-battling for booze... Pure Xmas! #marilwyd
December 11, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
1steviekilner.bsky.social
No matter how cold you might think it gets at winter, that's nothing compared to a Fimbulwinter.

In Norse mythology, Fimbulwinter is a terrible event that proceeds the end of the world, featuring 3 successive years without summer, during which all people & animals perish.
Brrrrr 🥶
#FolkloreThursday
December 11, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
botanicafabula.bsky.social
Sankta Lucia is this coming Saturday, I love that it celebrates light…and a fearsome witch who leads a procession of supernatural beings~we were also overjoyed to have been able to take in the full magic of Edinburgh Luciakör at Hexham Abbey this week…SO beautiful ✨ #folklorethursday ✨
December 11, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
mythcrafts.bsky.social
Most accounts of Perchta concur on the major themes: she was associated with spinning, she traveled with a litany of others, and she loved slitting open the bellies of naughty children and stuffing them with straw or garbage.

#folklorethursday

🔗👇

mythcrafts.com/2024/12/12/t...
The Rounder the Belly, the Harder it is to Slit! Beware Frau Perchta
Frau Perchta is a folkloric figure from the Alpine region, one that rewards the good and punishes the bad around Winter festival time. Like most folkloric figures, every locality has a slightly dif…
mythcrafts.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
mythcrafts.bsky.social
Krampus’ name is probably from the German kramp/krampen, which means claw (though another possible etymology comes from the Bavarian word krampn, which means dead or rotten)

#folklorethursday

🔗👇

mythcrafts.com/2024/12/05/g...
Greeting from Krampus!
For every Yin, there is a Yang. Every time the Beatles sang that they ‘want(ed) to hold your hand’, there was a Mick Jagger swaggering on a different stage, snickering just exactly wher…
mythcrafts.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
crystalponti.bsky.social
Many Alpine villages believed the wind at year’s end carried whispers from the dead. Doors were cracked open just a moment so loved ones could slip inside and warm themselves. #FolkloreThursday

Art: Art Rave
December 11, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
botanicafabula.bsky.social
One of my favourite festive stories to tell #folklorethursday friends is the tale of how the pine tree came to be covered in stars~I share it in my book The Time Traveller’s Herbal~it all begins in the heart of a forest on longest night…

www.botanicafabula.co.uk/time-travell...
December 11, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
willowwinsham.bsky.social
Perchta from Germanic folklore visits houses during the 12 Days of Christmas. She leaves silver coins for those who have been good, and slits the bellies of those who have not, stuffing them with straw. #FolkloreThursday
Illustration from The Story of Witches by Willow Winsham. Art by Katie Ponder. Showing Perchta, a hooded hag-like figure with long hair and hooked nose. She is holding a sword-like knife and dropping a coin into a shoe. There is a border of candles, stars and snowflakes.
December 11, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
theforemotherscafe.bsky.social
Were you at @unitedxr.eu in Brussels this week?
Read the book that inspired our VR World, The Foremothers Cafe and was featured in an amazing talk by Helen.

Read the book, then step into the story in Virtual Reality!

#Readers #VR #HistoricalFiction
helenerwin.bsky.social Helen Lundström Erwin @helenerwin.bsky.social · Dec 11
Two women, an unwed mother and a suffragette, change the world.
A long journey of hardship and trials then a heartbreaking connection that changed everything, not just for them, but for us.
Excellent Holiday Gift for Readers
#HistoricalFiction
www.amazon.com/dp/0986266647
December 11, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
theforemotherscafe.bsky.social
One more week until our #LuciaConcert at our cafe.
Please join us at 1 pm ET 19.00 CET for our candlelit Yultetide concert in #VR
On #ENGAGE
December 11, 2025 at 10:59 AM
deedeechainey.bsky.social
An exhibition for #Krampusnacht, #FolkloreThursday -ers!
deedeechainey.bsky.social DeeDeeChainey @deedeechainey.bsky.social · Dec 10
I was a little bit ill on Friday, and totally forgot I'd set up an exhibition for Krampusnacht!

It features the video I made of last year's trip to watch the Krampuslauf in Welschnofen (Nova Levante), South Tyrol, in northern Italy near Bolzano.

www.spatial.io/s/DeeDeeChai...
Dee Dee standing in front of a video screen and Krampus statue in The Cultural Futures Hub.
December 11, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
1steviekilner.bsky.social
Any time with a bit of #FolkloreThursday in it is the most wonderful time of the year!
But doubly so when it's festive-themed 🥳
It is a simple joy to share stories with the marvellous @folklorethursday.bsky.social community 💙
Looking forward to it 😊
December 10, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
madeleinedeste.bsky.social
A piece of Christmas folklore which I always follow... is taking down your decorations by Twelfth Night otherwise you'll have bad luck.
The way to avert the bad luck is keep the tinsel up all year.
#FolkloreThursday
Image by Paul Nicholson from Pixabay Tabby cat in a Christmas tree adorned with gold tinsel and beads
December 11, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
bevanthomas.bsky.social
Boreas is the Greek god of the cold north wind, storms, and winter. He is brother to the other winds, and son of Eos, the dawn. Boreas is very strong, with a violent temper, and his most well-known myth is his abduction of the Athenian princess Oreithyia.
🎨Stefano della Bella
#FolkloreThursday
Boreas abducts Oreithyia. An engraving by Stefano della Bella.
December 11, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
“The old custom was to light the Yule log with a fragment of its predecessor, which had been kept throughout the year for the purpose; where it was so kept, the fiend could do no mischief.”
 
(Frazer “Golden Bough”)
 
🎨 H.M.Paget
 
#Folklorethursday
December 11, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by DeeDeeChainey
anniebrassey.bsky.social
"A Christmas Dream. - Drawn By Kate Greenaway."
The Illustrated London News 26.12.1874.
On closer inspection it appears that there are some fairies playing snapdragon under her chair!
#FolkloreThursday #Christmas #Fairy #Art #History #1870s
December 11, 2025 at 9:48 AM