Where in Europe did folk religion/major folk beliefs hold out longest?

[HillGoose]

Among the population in general, not in terms of legal or governmental policy.

I ask because I was reading about how folk magicians known as "cunning men" were present in the UK, and pretty common until the 19th century, with some recorded into the 1930s. The interesting thing about it is that (from what I've read) in many of these European nations, belief in aspects of folk magic persisted far beyond Christianization, but the religious aspects disappeared more quickly after being absorbed into Christianity.

Another aspect is that it seems to get muddy when you go back further, and the pre-Christian religions are not as well documented nor are the practices of the population as a whole, so it seems hard to tell the extent to which these practices in more modern times resembled those from earlier times.

So,

1) Excluding probably the obvious of far-northern Scandinavia, where in Europe did pre-Christian religion stick around longest? How long did it take for the population to become overwhelmingly Christian?

2) What areas of Europe did belief in pre-Christian folk magic and ritual practices (although maybe not religion) persist the longest and became most deeply ingrained into society? Judging by the category of purely non-Christian sorts of superstition.

I hope to have some answers on this. I've been reading a lot on it in my spare time and it's become somewhat fascinating.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The Baltic countries were the last part of Europe to be Christianized, not until the late 14th century.

[Tender Branson]

There's a lot of pre-Christian Celtic/Pagan traditions left in and around Austria for example, most notably the Krampus or solstice bonfires on mountains, which date back thousands of years.

While Austria of course became heavily Christian over the centuries, first Catholic then in the 1500s and 1600s also quite a bit Protestant (until the Catholic Church and the ruling class killed them off or chased them away during the 30 Years War), those elements remained over the years and are still widely practiced by people. As of late, there's also a growing trend of funerals in woods for example, instead of being buried on the Catholic Church graveyard, something that is very arch-Celtic.

I should also note that central Austria (or better the Salzkammergut) was the center of the so-called Celtic Hallstatt Culture about 5.000 years ago, the most advanced culture at that time.

The culture was similar to the Hobbits, they were specializing in arts and culture, trade and advanced forms of handicraft.

Celtic Villages are popping up again as re-enactments of that time and are very popular with tourists and locals. There's one not far a way from here (5 miles):

[dead0man]

Is there much Celt blood left in the Austrian population?  Has DNA testing been done?

[Georg Ebner]

Is there much Celt blood left in the Austrian population?  Has DNA testing been done?

DNS-testing has been conducted now and again in Austria. But what is certainly Celtic blood? At Y-chr. some SubClades of R1b probably, but the Celts were not a pure race, of course.
According to Cavalli-Sforza the genetical FootPrint of 2 people wasn't detected: MegalithCulture (a religion without migration?) and Celts.

[Blue3]

There's a republic inside European Russia that's still mostly pagan.

[Mr. Smith]

Iceland still holds out for hidden people if that counts.

[HillGoose]

There's a republic inside European Russia that's still mostly pagan.

What? I've never heard that lol. What one is it?

[Blue3]

There's a republic inside European Russia that's still mostly pagan.

What? I've never heard that lol. What one is it?

Mari El

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_El

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Native_Religion

[DC Al Fine]

On a related note there were Egyptian pagans practicing well into the 6th century.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

On a related note there were Egyptian pagans practicing well into the 6th century.

Interesting, I wonder if any were still around during the Arab conquest.

[DINGO Joe]

That island off of Scotland where they burned up Nicholas Cage to save the crops--FF.  And yes, I know the Nicholas Cage version was set in Puget Sound.

[Lechasseur]

Even though Russia converted to Christianity around the year 1000, I read somewhere (Wikipedia I believe, I'll look for the article) that until the 1600s Christianity was mainly the religion of the elites, and that the peasantry largely stayed pagan until that point. I was surprised to read that but it was very interesting.

So apparently the answer's Russia.

But the Baltic States outright rejected Christianity until the late 14th Century I believe, so you could argue it's them too.

[HillGoose]

Even though Russia converted to Christianity around the year 1000, I read somewhere (Wikipedia I believe, I'll look for the article) that until the 1600s Christianity was mainly the religion of the elites, and that the peasantry largely stayed pagan until that point. I was surprised to read that but it was very interesting.

So apparently the answer's Russia.

But the Baltic States outright rejected Christianity until the late 14th Century I believe, so you could argue it's them too.

Thanks for the Russia info. Like that's sort of what I was wondering. Clearly most European countries were legally Christian before the majority of their population had adopted Christianity, and that was definitely sort of what interested me.

Like even when 30% of the population were still pagan, that's still clearly a large chunk and I wonder in different parts of Europe how long it took to get to a point where paganism was out of the norm, even if a majority of the population was Christian, a sizeable minority of paganism might not have seemed out of place.

[Lechasseur]

Sorry for having taken so long to post this, but my source is this section of the Wikipedia article on Slavic Paganism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_paganism#Continuity_of_Slavic_religion_in_Russia_up_to_the_15th_century

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Even though Russia converted to Christianity around the year 1000, I read somewhere (Wikipedia I believe, I'll look for the article) that until the 1600s Christianity was mainly the religion of the elites, and that the peasantry largely stayed pagan until that point. I was surprised to read that but it was very interesting.

So apparently the answer's Russia.

But the Baltic States outright rejected Christianity until the late 14th Century I believe, so you could argue it's them too.

Thanks for the Russia info. Like that's sort of what I was wondering. Clearly most European countries were legally Christian before the majority of their population had adopted Christianity, and that was definitely sort of what interested me.

Like even when 30% of the population were still pagan, that's still clearly a large chunk and I wonder in different parts of Europe how long it took to get to a point where paganism was out of the norm, even if a majority of the population was Christian, a sizeable minority of paganism might not have seemed out of place.

If you’re interested in the topic, most reading on Russia will clarify that even peasant Christians practiced a form of Orthodox Christianity that might appear starkly different than what would be found in your average ROC church. Russian Christianity at the popular level was permeated probably both by pre-Christian traditions as well as the sort of folk religion you’d expect from religious but superstitious people very far from centers of religious and political power. You can see a sort of similar phenomenon with Muslim Kyrgyz and Kazakhs prior to 1917.

[The Mikado]

There's a republic inside European Russia that's still mostly pagan.

What? I've never heard that lol. What one is it?

Mari El

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_El

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Native_Religion

I thought you were going to mention Kalmykia (predominantly Buddhist, but Buddhism is a "pagan" faith and it is within Europe).