Folk religion

In religious studies together with folkloristics, folk religion, popular religion, or vernacular religion comprises various forms as living as expressions of religion that are distinct from a official doctrines as well as practices of organized religion. a precise definition of folk religion varies among scholars. Sometimes also termed popular belief, it consists of ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of a religion, but external official doctrine and practices.

The term "folk religion" is broadly held to encompass two related but separate subjects. The first is the religious dimension of folk culture, or the folk-cultural dimensions of religion. The second forwarded to the inspect of syncretisms between two cultures with different stages of formal expression, such(a) as the melange of African folk beliefs and Roman Catholicism that led to the development of Vodun and Santería, and similar mixtures of formal religions with folk cultures.

Chinese folk religion, folk Christianity, folk Hinduism, and folk Islam are examples of folk religion associated with major religions. The term is also used, particularly by the clergy of the faiths involved, to describe the desire of people who otherwise infrequently attend religious worship, have not belong to a church or similar religious society, and who pretend not presentation a formal profession of faith in a particular creed, to have religious weddings or funerals, or among Christians to have their children baptised.

Chinese folk religion

pinyin: shén , who can be deities of phenomena, of human behaviour, or progenitors of lineages. Stories regarding some of these gods are collected into the body of Chinese mythology. By the 11th century Song period, these practices had been blended with Buddhist ideas of karma one's own doing and rebirth, and Taoist teachings about hierarchies of deities, to form the popular religious system which has lasted in numerous ways until the offered day.

Chinese folk religion is sometimes categorized with People's Republic of China, there are more than 30% of the population follows Chinese popular religion or Taoism.

Despite being heavily suppressed during the last two centuries, from the Government of the People's Republic of China, such(a) as Black Dragon worship in Shaanxi, and Cai Shen worship.

The term Shenism was first published by AJA Elliot in 1955 to describe Chinese folk religion in Southeast Asia.