In religious studies and folkloristics, folk religion, popular religion, traditional religion, or vernacular religion comprises various forms and expressions of religion that are distinct from the official doctrines and practices of organized religion. The precise definition of folk religion varies among scholars. Sometimes also termed popular belief, it consists of ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of a religion; but outside official doctrine and practices.
Botánicas such as this one in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, USA, sell religious goods, such as statues of saints and candles decorated with prayers, alongside folk medicine and amulets.
Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements—although there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion. Different religions may or may not contain various elements ranging from the divine, sacredness, faith, and a supernatural being or beings.
The Buddha, Laozi, and Confucius – founders of Buddhism, Taoism (Daoism) and Confucianism – in a Ming dynasty painting
Budazhap Shiretorov (Будажап Цыреторов), the head shaman of the religious community Altan Serge (Алтан Сэргэ) in Buryatia
A manuscript depicting the climactic Kurukshetra War in Hindu epic Mahabharata. The Mahabharata is the longest epic poem known and a key source of Hindu mythology.
The Yazılıkaya sanctuary in Turkey, with the twelve gods of the underworld