Difference between Mythology And Folklore
Before answering the main question about the difference between two concepts, mythology
and folklore, I decided to understand what they stand for in the first place. As stated in the
first chapter of the book named “Living Folklore” by Martha C. Sims and Martine Stephens,
there are a lot of misconceptions about Folklore. People sometimes tend to give a single
definition to some things. For example, you cannot just say that folklore is just some tales
about one’s culture, and so on. Folklore may be many different things. Folklore is constantly
changing, as the time, customs and similar things that relate to humanity rapidly changes. In
history, people used to believe in stories that we nowadays claim to be “myths”. In the article
“Ways of interpreting Myths” that include many studies about Myths, it is said that Myths are
a belief. We have a choice to believe it or not. Belief refers to religious concepts. In my
understanding, the difference between mythology and folklore is that mythology usually
contains stories that come from our fantasies, whereas folklore involves cultural gatherings,
local stories, dances, food and etc.