This episode of the Folklore & Fiction podcast was first published as a newsletter in May 2020. I'm recording it as a supplemental podcast now so that new listeners and subscribers have an opportunity to engage with the material. In it, I'm writing about folk customs with help from scholars Richard Sweterlitsch and Wayland Hand, author Naomi Novik, and friends Vigdís Andersen and Sveinn Svavarsson, among others. (Companion Dispatch: https://csmaccath.com/blog/what-folk-custom)