query: instance_of childlore
supports: A tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes (like lawyers' wigs or military officers' spurs), but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings. Traditions can persist and evolve for thousands of yearsthe word "tradition" itself derives from the Latin "tradere" or "traderer" literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. While it is commonly assumed that traditions have ancient history, many traditions have been invented on purpose, whether that be political or cultural, over short periods of time. Various academic disciplines also use the word in a variety of ways.  Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, the forms and rituals of celebrations like Christmas and weddings, folk dances and initiation rites. Each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next. For folklore is not taught in a formal school curriculum or studied in the fine arts. Instead these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration. The academic study of folklore is called folkloristics. Folkloristics, more commonly known as folklore studies, is the formal academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonym "Folklore Studies", gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the academic study of traditional culture from the folklore artifacts themselves. The American Folklife Preservation Act (P.L. 94-201), passed by the United States Congress in conjunction with the Bicentennial Celebration in 1976, included a definition of folklore, also called folklife: Christmas or Christmas Day (meaning "Christ's Mass") is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed most commonly on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is prepared for by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night; in some traditions, Christmastide includes an Octave. The traditional Christmas narrative, the Nativity of Jesus, delineated in the New Testament says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies; when Joseph and Mary arrived in the city, the inn had no room and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels proclaiming this news to shepherds who then disseminated the message furthermore. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated religiously by the vast majority of Christians, as well as culturally by a number of non-Christian people, and is an integral part of the holiday season, while some Christian groups reject the celebration. In several countries, celebrating Christmas Eve on December 24 has the main focus rather than December 25, with gift-giving and sharing a traditional meal with the family. Childlore is the folklore or folk culture of children and young people . It includes , for example , rhymes and games played in the school playground . The best known researchers of the field were Peter and Iona Opie . The subject matter of childlore includes the traditions of children between the ages of about 6 and 15 such as games , riddles , rhymes , jokes , pranks , superstitions , magical practices , wit , lyrics , guile , epithets , nicknames , torments , parody , oral legislation , seasonal customs , tortures , obscenities , codes , etc. as well as individual activities such as solitary play , daydreaming , fantasies , imaginary companions and heroes , collections , scrapbooks , model worlds , comic reading , mass media interests , dramatizations , stories , art , etc. As a branch of folklore , childlore is concerned with those activities which are learned and passed on by children to other children . The stories and games taught by adults to children are not considered childlore except insofar as the children adapt and make them their own . In western culture most folklorists are concerned with children after they join their peers in elementary school or kindergarten . The traditions of childhood generally stop after the child enters intermediate school , which coincides with puberty and adolescence . Opie and Opie demonstrate that the culture of children is quite distinctive and is as unnoticed by the sophisticated world , and quite as little affected by it . Opie points out that the words of one game had survived from the time of Nero . The conservatism of childlore contrasts with the way adult folklore is rapidly modified to fit changing circumstances . Material culture is the physical evidence of a culture in the objects and architecture they make, or have made. The term tends to be relevant only in archeological and anthropological studies, but it specifically means all material evidence which can be attributed to culture, past or present. Material culture studies is an interdisciplinary field telling of relationships between people and their things: the making, history, preservation, and interpretation of objects. It draws on theory and practice from the social sciences and humanities such as art history, archaeology, anthropology, history, historic preservation, folklore, literary criticism and museum studies, among others. Anything from buildings and architectural elements to books, jewelry, or toothbrushes can be considered material culture. A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh. It takes the form of a story, usually with dialogue, and ends in a punch line. It is in the punch line that the audience becomes aware that the story contains a second, conflicting meaning. This can be done using a pun or other word play such as irony, a logical incompatibility, nonsense or other means. Linguist Robert Hetzron offers the definition:
candidates: academic discipline archaeology architecture art artifact behavior belief celebration child city combination culture currency day evidence family field folklore generation gift group holiday humour joke mass material material culture message military museum narrative part people practice preservation public pun room structure subculture the city time tradition united states congress word
answer: academic discipline