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Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

Smithsonian Voices

In a crystal dish, beside a plate of pancakes, butter formed in the shape of a lamb with a red ribbon around its neck, red flag sticking out from its back, and a black peppercorn for an eye.

Behold the Butter Lamb of God: A Polish Catholic Easter Tradition Beloved in Buffalo, New York

A butter lamb has taken center stage on my family’s Easter table for as long as I can remember.

Tiffany Stayer | April 14, 2025

Three men, two holding acoustic guitars, pose in front of a festival tent.

A Life in Folklore: Frank Proschan’s Community Work and New Internship Endowment

After fifty years in culture work, Proschan has gifted his research as a folklorist and anthropologist to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections.

Eowyn Stewart | March 14, 2025

Wooden shelves and counter filled with jars are lit by two oil lamps.

In Appalachia, Women Carry Traditions in Folk Magic and 'Granny Witchcraft'

Folk magic goes by many names in the Appalachian Mountains: root work, granny magic, kitchen witchery, Braucherei, witchcraft

Emma Cieslik | March 7, 2025

Uzbek_Smaller.jpg

'Dressing Like a Human' to Honor Uzbekistani Art and Identity

Uzbekistani artisan and businesswoman Lola Sayfi is hopeful for the future of artisans

Nadya Ellerhorst | July 22, 2024
we-are-still-here-still.jpg

Finding Balance Is a Global Experience at the 2024 Mother Tongue Film Festival

In a world that often feels on the edge of instability, the 2024 Mother Tongue Film Festival theme is profoundly resonant.

Chelsea Fuller | February 23, 2024
millville-rose-pink.jpg

The Millville Rose: Artifacts of Whimsy and Art in Industry

The “Millville Rose” represents the refined skills of factory glassblowers who toiled in an industry in which they had little say in what they made.

Alexandra Sikorski | February 16, 2024
Two protesters hold signs saying "You're on Abenaki land" and "This is Abenaki land."

This Land is Whose Land? Interrogating the Shortcomings of Settler Protest

In order to dismantle this nation’s blind spot for Native struggles, we must examine how ignorance about Indian Country and anti-Nativism are disseminated.

Mali Obomsawin | November 1, 2022
A beautiful rust colored hill against a blue, cloudy sky.

The Power of “Bears Ears” and Indigenous Place Names

What’s in a name? It’s an important part of our identity, our existence, connecting us to our cultural and social realms.

Angelo Baca | August 9, 2022
On the left, a woman with long wavy dark hair and patterned blue blouse sings into a microphone, seated, eyes closed. On the right, another person sits behind a long barrel-shaped drum, holding a hand drum, looking down.

Warming to Tradition: The Culture of Vocal Exercise

No matter the genre of singing, or where we’re from, our vocal exercises are meaningful.

Zofia Majewski | June 21, 2022
Various cobs of multicolored corn.

How Seeds Tell Stories

In the past century, there has been a seventy-five percent decline in agricultural biodiversity. When we fail to prioritize biodiversity, we risk erasing cultural diversity as well.

Gabrielle Puglisi | April 22, 2022
American Sign Language alphabet

Hearing the Voices of Deaf Culture at the 1981 Folklife Festival

The landmark event introduced many hearing visitors to the stories, poems, sign play, jokes and traditions of the deaf community

James Deutsch | September 23, 2021
Carolyn Smith collecting beargrass in Klamath National Forest, 2015. For beargrass to be supple enough for weavers to use in their baskets, it needs to be burned annually. Ideally, it is burned in an intentionally set cultural fire, where only the tops are burned, leaving the roots intact. Prescribed fires in the Klamath National Forest are few and far between, so weavers “follow the smoke” and gather, when they can, after wildfires sweep through the landscape. (Photo courtesy of Carolyn Smith)

How Indigenous Ecological Knowledge Offers Solutions to California’s Wildfires

“We need to reintegrate Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge and cultural and prescribed burning into our landscape,” Carolyn Smith says.

Emily Buhrow Rogers and Carolyn Smith | July 27, 2021
The Indianola dock stretches out into the Puget Sound. Since time immemorial, the Suquamish Tribe has sourced their sustenance, folklore, and community from the salt waters and pebbly beaches of the sound.

Photo by Julian White-Davis

The Struggle for Native Lands in Indianola, Washington

Indianola’s beaches were once the home of the Suquamish Tribe, or in their language, Southern Lushootseed, suq̀wabš—People of Clear Salt Water.

Julian White-Davis | June 8, 2021
From Insects, their way and means of living. Artwork by R. E. Snodgrass

Cicada Folklore, or Why We Don’t Mind Billions of Burrowing Bugs at Once

The earliest documented examples of cicada folklore come from China.

James Deutsch | May 25, 2021
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