Colombian folklore
Colombian folklore is the study of the informal beliefs, customs and cultural traditions in Colombia.
Cultural influences
Colombia has many traditional folk tales and stories about legendary creatures which are transmitted orally and kept for next generations to come. Some of them are common with other Latin American countries. The Colombian folklore has strong native American influences, with elements of African and Spanish culture.
Relevancy
This folkloric entities are present in the carnivals and festivals countrywide. The “Desfiles de Mitos y Leyendas” (myths and legends parades) are important part in these events in most of the Colombian cities and municipalities. Examples of this parades are the Barranquilla's Carnival, Cali Fair and Festival of the Flowers, where the legendary creatures parade take place in the Medellín´s Pueblito Paisa, at the top of Nutibara hill. Legendary creatures have also been accepted into many facets of popular culture and the collective memory. There are those who believe in their existence, claiming to have heard or even encountered them.
Legendary creatures
- The Tunda (La Tunda) is a myth of the Pacific Region of Colombia, and particularly popular in the Afro-Colombian community, about a vampire-like doppelganger monster woman
- The Patasola or "one foot" is one of many myths in South American folklore about woman monsters from the jungle.
- The Moan is a forest and river creature that protects the forests, steals women and disturbs fishing and hunting activities.
- The Llorona or the Weeping Woman is the ghost of a woman crying for her dead children that she drowned. Her appearances are sometimes held to presage death.
- The Madremonte (Mother of the forest) or Marimonda is usually regarded as protective of nature and the forest animals and unforgiving when humans enter their domains to alter or destroy them. She can be identified with Mother Nature and Mistress of the Animals
- The Hombre Caiman, or Alligatorman, is a legendary creature that possesses both Alligator and human features. This South American folk tale is particularly popular in Plato, Magdalena, especially in rural and less populated areas. He is said to have been a fisherman converted by the spirit of the Magdalena river into an alligator, that returns every year on St. Sebastian´s day to hunt human victims, much like the werewolf.
- The Mohana (La Mojana) Mother of water or Mami Wata is a shapeshifting water spirit who usually appear in human form to seduce and take away the humans. In the Amazon basin this features are applied to the Pink Dolphins representing the spirit of Amazon river. The discography of colombian folkloric singer Totó la Momposina includes works about the Mohana.
- The evil chicken ("pollo maligno") is an evil spirit of the forest in the form of a poultry bird that haunts the hunters, attracting them to the deepest forest in order to devour them.
- The Candileja is said to be the spirit of a vicious old woman, who was in charge of her grandchildren but neglected to teach then any moral principles, so they grew up as murderers and thieves. In the afterlife she was damned to travel around the world surrounded by flames. It is related to the Will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon.
- The dark mule or Mula Retinta is an evil spirit that appears to the arrieros as a pack animal, causing violent winds and storms that makes the people to fall of the precipices at the side of the pathways.
- The Viruñas or Mandingas (the Evil One), is considered a representation of Satan, and appears as a handsome man who steals the souls of the people.