A castle in the sky at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

#WaltDisneyWorld #MagicKingdom #CinderellaCastle #Disney #DisneyWorld #ThemePark #Florida

Nüwa, daughter of the Flame Emperor, tragically drowned while swimming in China's Eastern Sea. However, she was reincarnated as the spirit-guardian bird Jingwei and began regularly carrying twigs and stones to the sea that took her life to attempt to fill it up. #FolkloreSunday

📷: Hussain Zidhan

#Folklore #Mythology #Jingwei #Bird #China #ChineseMythology #TheClassicOfMountainsAndSeas

According to Irish folklore, the banshee is a type of female spirit whose terrible, mournful cries serve as a warning that a death will soon occur. The name banshee can be translated as "woman of the mound" or "fairy woman." #MythologyMonday

🎨 : William Henry Brooke

#Folklore #Banshee #Ireland #IrishFolklore #WilliamHenryBrooke

Sometimes it’s nice to stop and just enjoy the view for a little while.

#Nature #Clouds #Landscape #NaturePark

Merry Christmas!

Have a Merry Christmas Eve!

According to Swedish folklore recorded in Benjamin Thorpe's 1852 book 'Northern Mythology,' Trolls celebrate Christmas Eve with plenty of music, dancing and drinking. It was said to be dangerous for Christians to be about while these festivities were going on. #FairyTaleTuesday

🎨:John Bauer

#Folklore #Trolls #Christmas #ChristmasEve #SwedishFolklore

It's that time of year at EPCOT, which means Olaf from 'Frozen' is once again collecting seasonal traditions from around the world (including these gingerbread men from the Canada Pavilion) as part of Olaf's Holiday Tradition Expedition Scavenger Hunt. #EpcotHolidays

#WaltDisneyWorld #Epcot #Frozen #Olaf #Christmas #Gingerbread #Disney #ThemePark #Florida

At EPCOT's Norway Pavilion, the Holiday Storyteller is a mischievous Barn Santa inspired by the #folklore of the fjøsnissen, gnome-like house spirits that protect Norwegian farms. He spends much of his presentation playing tricks on his human co-host, Sigrid. #EpcotHolidays

#WaltDisneyWorld #Epcot #Nisse #Fjøsnissen #BarnSanta #Christmas #ThemPark #Florida

Happy Winter Solstice! Seems like an appropriate day to share this photo I took of the Merry Menagerie at Disney's Animal Kingdom, which utilizes puppetry to celebrate a variety of cold-weather creatures.

#WaltDisneyWorld #DisneysAnimalKingdom #MerryMenagerie #Reindeer #Puppet #ThemePark #Florida

What do you mean there's only 5 days left until Christmas?! Where has this month gone?!

According to a Swiss folktale, a poor old shepherd and his wife were the only people in their village to aid a dwarf seeking shelter from a storm and even shared their meager food with him. The next day, the couple's home was the only one to be spared from a flood. #FolkyFriday

📷: Townsend Walton

#Folklore #Folktale #Dwarf #Kindness #Switzerland #SwissFolklore

According to folklore, animals gain the ability to speak on Christmas Eve, but you may not want to hear what they have to say. In one story from the Alps, a farmhand overheard horses discussing the plans for an upcoming funeral that turned out to be his own. #FolkloreThursday

📷: Michael Starkie

#Folklore #Christmas #ChristmasEve #Horses #Folktale #GothicYuletide

This Haunted Mansion-inspired Christmas tree, which is part of the annual Disney Springs Christmas Tree Stroll at Walt Disney World, would be the perfect backdrop for telling a Christmas ghost story. #GothicYuletide

#WaltDisneyWorld #DisneySprings #HauntedMansion #MadameLeota #Christmas #ChristmasTree

In a tale from Pu Songling's 'Strange Stories from the Lodge of Leisures,' a sick man was awakened by a group of huntsmen, each no bigger than his thumb, coming through his door on foot and on horseback to hunt down all the insects that had infested his room. #WyrdWednesday

#Folklore #PuSongling #StrangeStoriesFromTheLodgeOfLeisures #China #ChineseLiterature

The Alps are the home of the Barbegazi, gnome-like creatures covered in white fur with frozen beards. Only active during the cold winter months, they are said to use their oversized feet as skis and make a whistling noise to warn of impending avalanches. #FairyTaleTuesday

📷: Vincent Etter

#Folklore #Barbegazi #Alps #Winter #AlpineFolklore

In the Japanese ghost story 'Yotsuya Kaidan,' Oiwa became an onryō (vengeful spirit) after her death and haunted her treacherous husband everywhere he went in various ways, perhaps the most striking of which was her disfigured face appearing in paper lanterns. #MythologyMonday

🎨: Katsushika Hokusai

#Folklore #GhostStory #Oiwa #YotsuyaKaidan #Ghost #Onryō #PaperLantern #Hokusai #Japan #JapaneseFolklore

La Befana, a witch from Italian folklore who leaves presents for children on Epiphany Eve, is the Italy Pavilion's Holiday Storyteller during EPCOT's Festival of the Holidays. She recounts how an encounter with the Three Wise Men led to her becoming a gift giver. #EpcotHolidays

#WaltDisneyWorld #Epcot #LaBefana #Befana #Christmas #Folklore #Italy #ThemePark

According to Clement A. Miles' 1912 book 'Christmas in Ritual and Tradition,' there was a belief in a region of Norway that on rare occasions the old Norse Gods would descend from the mountains to attack Christians on Christmas Eve. A variation of the Wild Hunt? #FolkloreSunday

🎨: William T. Maud

#Folklore #Christmas #NorseMythology #Norway #ScandanavianFolklore

I kinda love how the palm trees in the background of this photo that I recently took at Disney's Hollywood Studios make the ornament Santa Gertie is holding look a little like a Hidden Mickey.

#WaltDisneyWorld #DisneysHollywoodStudios #GertieTheDinosaur #SantaGertie #Christmas #ThemePark #Florida