fairies

Belief in fairies is the most widespread of all. Most often they are described as beautiful young ladies with long hair and soft and transparent body, with beautiful eyes, pleasant voice, dressed in airy white gowns, with a shroud over their head which allows them to fly. If their shroud gets torn, they will lose their ability to fly. Their hair is most often golden, let loose and long, so it hits the ground. Their hair must not be pulled; even if a single hair is pulled out they will die cause of it! Fairies are of ambivalent nature, they can be nice to people but also very dangerous or evil if they are not pleased. Their ambivalence is also noticeable in their looks, although very beautiful and innocent in their upper part of their body, they have animal legs, most often legs of a goat or a donkey. Their power is significant, and they can rule the weather, and make crops grow overnight. They live secluded from people, in nature, most often in forests, and they come out of them to meadows and roads, but they are most often seen near or in the water. They are often seen alone or in odd numbers of three, five, seven or nine. They can transform into a bird, cloud, fog, flower or something similar.

According to the traditional belief, fairies often spend their time under the fairy tree. The fairy tree is the one tree in the forest that stands out with its beauty and grandness, and most often, it is a beautiful, old oak tree. People saw fairies standing under the fairy tree and they avoided sitting under them to avoid making the fairies angry. It is believed that a leaf from the fairy tree protects from any hardship.

It was said that the fairies do their fairy dance in the moonlight, in places far away from any human presence, most often on the meadows surrounded by forests. Places, where they danced, were marked by a perfect circle. Within that circle, there would have been no grass. People avoided those places, especially at dusk, because they believed that fairies would do them harm. Only rare, pure people could join their dance, either accidentally or when invited by fairies themselves.