Holidays Books

All Year Round (Lifeways)

Ann Druitt, Christine Fynes-Clinton, Marije Rowling

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This book is a treasure trove of tomorrow's fond childhood memories, all mingled with a mix of colored thread, delicious cooking smells, softly sparkling candlelight, and the snatches of favorite songs.

Brimming with stories, poems, activities, things to make, and songs, All Year Round offers a friendly guide to the seasonal round of festivals. Helpful drawings and diagrams illustrate this practical book. It contains a wealth of experience that can help families find their own way around the year.

Parents are encouraged to develop their traditions and family ways using this as a springboard. As the authors say, "the words are ours, the festivals are yours."

The authors believe that observing a round of festivals is an enjoyable way of bringing rhythm into children's lives, a way of providing meaningful landmarks to look forward to. Experiencing the unfolding year through stories, poems, and making seasonal tables encourages a love of nature. Each festival has a character of its own, bringing a special gift to family life. Celebrating together is important for families in all kinds of ways. This book offers suggestions about how to get going to all those who wish to deepen their understanding of the festive year.

A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations

Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

THE Halloween book to buy! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It doesn't matter if you are a home haunter like me, someone who loves Halloween, or just like to have THE best Halloween party in town, this is the book! It has so much fun info in it, recipes, costume ideas, decor and invite ideas... EVERYTHING! Buy one for yourself and one for your crazy friend!

Great book for any Halloween fan 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I purchased this book because I was planning a Halloween party. It had alot of great ideas for costomes, props and foods to serve. I also enoyed the chapters on the history of Halloween as well as different celebrations across the US.After reading this book I really want to go to Key West for their celebration/parade next year.I had purchased 4 Halloween books and this was the best of the lot

A Halloween How-To:Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I own several Halloween books and this is my favorite. Many have the same ideas over and over. This has some very different ideas and tricks of the trade for creating awesome Halloween displays and parties.

Wonderful Halloween Book 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If there were pictures in this book, it would be the best book I own on the subject. I love the chapter written about the background on the holiday and there were some really good decorating ideas. I wish the author would do a new edition on this book with color photographs of the projects.

On This Date : A Day-by-Day Listing of Holidays, Birthday and Historic Events, and Special Days, Weeks and Months

Sandy Whiteley

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $6.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An affordable new almanac from the creators of Chase's Calendar of Events

This fun, fact-filled calendar/almanac will fulfill the needs of amateur marketing mavens, freelance writers, and trivia buffs who need to know what happened On This Date. This fascinating volume is packed with entries selected from Chase's Calendar of Events, including more than 2,000 celebrity birthdays, important dates from history, fixed religious and national holidays, and special days, weeks, and months. Arranged day-by-day, from January 1 through December 31, the entries are American in emphasis and include humorous days (No Housework Day, Stay Home Because You're Well Day) and sponsored days and months (National Honey Month, Great American Smokeout) that aren't found in other day-by-day historical almanacs.

Key features include:

• More than 2,000 entries
• Contact information for event sponsors, including Web addresses
• Complete name and subject index
• Lists of movable religious and national holidays

Special Events: The Roots and Wings of Celebration (The Wiley Event Management Series)

Joe Goldblatt

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Editorial Review:

From the foremost authority, the definitive guide to your career as an event leader!

Today's special events have their roots in the universal, ancient human need to celebrate with ceremony and ritual. Twenty-first-century event leaders acknowledge these roots while moving the event management profession toward the new possibilities presented by our globalizing world. Special Events: The Roots and Wings of Celebration, Fifth Edition provides experienced as well as aspiring event leaders with a comprehensive guide to understanding, planning, funding, promoting, and producing special events. Filled with helpful resources and illustrative examples, this Fifth Edition covers such areas as marketing, sponsorship, human resource management, financial administration, risk management, safety and security, global event leadership models, media use, legal and ethical considerations, technology, career development, and more.

New and revised materials in this edition include:

• New profiles of leaders in the global events industry from Africa to America and from Bulgaria to Birmingham-learn what makes the greats great and their events truly spectacular
• Five Best Practice examples of exemplary events and over a dozen detailed case studies of all types of events
• Broader coverage of production schedules and the soon-to-be new industry standard, the APEX event specification guide
• Revised discussion of law and ethics in special events
• Over 100 new Web resources throughout text
• Descriptions of the leading meetings and events industry professional certification programs and how to earn these designations

The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: Celebrating the Dark Half of the Year

Jean Markale

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

From the viewpoint of an Historian, a Poet and a Philosopher 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 27 people found this review helpful.

Jean Markale is described as a poet, philosopher, historian and storyteller. His field of specialty is pre-Christian and medieval culture and spirituality. He is a very well known French author of over 40 books and is a specialist in Celtic studies at Sorbonne University in Paris.

It is not surprising then that Mr. Markale has written a most profound study of the Celtic celebration of Halloween or Samhain from the perspective of an actual historian and philosopher. The original of this book was first printed in France in 2000 and was translated and brought to the English speaking market in 2001.

I must first congratulate Mr. Graham for his extraordinary translation of this book. Not being fluent in French, I would never have tackled such a volume, but Mr. Graham has preserved, in my opinion, the poetic flavor of Mr. Markale's work. It flows rather than reading dry and halting, like many tomes on this subject.

The book is composed of only four chapters: The Celtic Festival of Samhain, The Fantastic Night, The Festival of All the Saints and The Shadows of Halloween. This is followed by a conclusion. While the number of chapters is small, the content of each is enormous, giving page after page of facts, religious comparisons, philosophies and supporting evidence for the practices of this misunderstood holiday.

I believe the best way to summarize what this book is about is to quote the author from his Conclusion:
"It is a way not of "taming death" as Montaigne said, but of exorcising it by establishing a direct line between before and after, which will display the permanence of life in all its aspects and all its states. This is the appropriate lesson to draw from Samhain and its survivals, whether the Christian All Saint's Day or the folklike manifestations of Halloween."

His book weaves these final thoughts into understanding as he unfolds the various aspects of this philosophy. I will only attempt to outline the book by its chapters, as it is difficult to take any of his material out of context without it suffering. The need to read, meditate and appreciate the written word as presented by Mr. Markale is one of the wonderful plus' of this book. To read it with all the footnotes as well as endnotes intact is to grasp the full appreciation of well researched work that pieces together the myths and stories and history with solid evidence. He creates a very balanced approach to defining what the origins and mysteries of Samhain were how it survived forced evolution and he brings it all into modern day understanding. There is a very extensive bibliography and one worth exploring if you wish to cover this topic further.

The Celtic Festival of Samhain examines the Celtic origins of this holiday. It examines the Celtic calendar, the division of the "Light of the Year" with the "Dark of the Year", compares the myths with evidence derived from recorded stories and histories and supports it with the culture of the Celtic people. He makes good arguments for the holiday occurring at the date assigned it, and then explores the practices or Rituals of the holiday. His conclusions are hard to argue with, as he produces some very strong evidence for his work. There is some wonderful material here, quoted from some common as well as obscure sources, and is both a pleasure to read and easy to understand.

The Fantastic Night explores the actual Celtic practices and meanings of this holiday. This chapter explores the philosophical aspects as evident from Celtic cultural practices. The meanings of "Other Worlds", or how time has no meaning on this occasion, and how this is supported by actual recording of cultural ideas and ideals of the Celtic peoples; all is presented here for you to savor, meditate upon and draw deeper understandings.

The Festival of All the Saints traces the evolving holiday, how it was forced into a mold created by those who failed to understand this holiday but could not remove it from the cultures of the areas. He traces how it was adapted and remade. But it is not a story of destruction but rather how the origins survived, maybe a bit worse for wear, and continued to thrive in spite of change. This is a very good look at the Christianization of the Celtic culture and how it created a very unique presence as "Celtic Christianity" and how it then proceeded to influence the rest of the Christian church.

Finally, in The Shadows of Halloween we see how this holiday has come down to us today, how it has survived the ravages of time and continues to be a time when we remember those things of old and incorporate them into our new. The outward signs are reminders of the old philosophies and beliefs and we cling to them because it sparks recognition of values that are not just Celtic, but universal ideas that cross many cultures.

His conclusions are very philosophical in nature, and are profound in the revelations he makes regarding our perceptions of life, death, time and rebirth. He uses many literary examples of how we have continued, over the course of time, to experience, again and again, the understanding of our basic need to acknowledge death and in the same breath, life. To quote again:
"Everything is contained within the apparent masquerades of Halloween. The sacred is inseparable from the profane, and popular memory, still rebelling against the dominate ideologies, has preserved within its most intimate depths and restored on certain occasions a state of nature that was so dear to the Utopian thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- to wit, outside of time and space, the universal fraternity of beings and things."

Probably the best book on the subject, for its ability to successfully tackle the true meaning and origins of this very often misunderstood and sometimes feared holiday. A must read for anyone not afraid to expand their understanding and give more than a passing thought to the significance of Halloween. boudica

Editorial Review:

Celtic scholar Jean Markale explores "the shadowy zones" of All Hallows' Eve in The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween. Though the name comes from the Christians' All Saints' Eve, Halloween can be traced back thousands of years to Samhain--the beginning of the "dark half" of the Celtic yearly calendar. As a feasting and merrymaking festival, Samhain lasted about three days, and attendance was mandatory, according to Markale. It was also the time when fairy folk made themselves available to humans, and the borders between the worlds of the living and the dead were said to blur. Markale is a thorough historian, offering a plausible account of how Samhain evolved into the modern day celebration. For readers seeking general Halloween information, Markale may be too dry and detailed. But for those intrigued by pagan festivals and lifestyle, this could be as delectable and coveted as a bag of Halloween candy. --Gail Hudson

Extreme Pumpkins: Diabolical Do-It-Yourself Designs to Amuse Your Friends and Scare Your Neighbors

Tom Nardone

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

wickedly fun 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is entertaining, hilarious, and is guaranteed to equally disturb your neighbors and make you a legend among the neighborhood kids come Halloween. Easy instructions to make one of the many bizzare pumpkins illustrated or to "take creative wing" and scare the bejeebers out of the neighbors! Put the fun back into Halloween-this book will show you how!!!

Editorial Review:

Pumpkins are supposed to be scary!

Based on his popular and addictive website ExtremePumpkins.com, Tom Nardone has created a full-color guide to pumpkin carving that's truly frightening. Featuring the website's signature Puking Pumpkin, and spanning everything from Drowning Pumpkin, Crime Scene Pumpkin, and Cannibal Pumpkin to Electrocuted Pumpkin and other never-before-seen designs, this gleefully gory guide is nothing short of a manifesto to take back Halloween from the cheerful, the cutesy, and the parent-sanctioned. For the egg-throwing, toilet tissue- streaming, window-soaping teenager in all of us, finally- a whole new way to celebrate October 31.

In Tune With the World: A Theory of Festivity

Josef Pieper

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this stimulating and still-timely study, Josef Pieper takes up a theme of paramount importance to his thinking - that festivals belong by rights among the great topics of philosophical discussion.

As he develops his theory of festivity, the modern age comes under close and painful scrutiny. It is obvious that we no longer know what festivity is, namely, the celebration of existence under various symbols.

Pieper exposes the pseudo-festivals, in their harmless and their sinister forms: traditional feasts contaminated by commercialism; artificial holidays created in the interest of merchandisers; holidays by coercion, decreed by dictators the world over; festivals as military demonstrations; holidays empty of significance. And lastly we are given the apocalyptic vision of a nihilistic world which would seek its release not in festivities but in destruction.

Formulated with Pieper's customary clarity and elegance, enhanced by brilliantly chosen quotations, this is an illuminating contribution to the understanding of traditional and contemporary experience.

Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear Postcard Book

Diane C. Arkins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs Of Yesteryear Postcard B 2 out of 5 stars.
12 of 21 people found this review helpful.

Customs?...what customs? This is just a collection of tear-out postcard reprints with no comments, far less writing, to go along with them. On top of that, none of the "notable" ones are shown (Schmucker, Clapsaddle, etc.). Another "why did I buy this?" item to put on the shelf.

Great art work! Very classy! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I love vinatage/antique Halloween ANY THING! These cards are excellent. You get 15 wonderful post cards! I plan to frame some for decoration. I won't even use these to mail they're so pretty and elegant! Great, ...price for a wonderful item. Recommend highly!

Title confusing - but charming collection 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I see from a previous review that the title of this collection is confusing since it seems to indicate that there is information on Halloween customs in the book...I think this is arising from the fact that this is a companion book to the ACTUAL book (by the same author) called "Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear". If you take this one as an extention of that book (to give people the art as a separate, usable item) it makes more sense. I love it as the little vintage window it is.

Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History

Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

great halloween information 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 19 people found this review helpful.

this is an awesome book if you are looking for the whole history behind halloween and how it became an american holiday.This book is not for someone who is looking for a holiday read,but rather for someone who really wants to know the history behind this greatest of all holidays.I learned things about halloween that i never knew before,and being a real halloween nut, I thought i knew alot.You will learn the whole history behind halloween with this book,I enjoyed it greatly.

Editorial Review:

Halloween has evolved from the Celtic celebrations of 2,000 years ago to become today the fastest-growing holiday in the country. This, the only book to completely cover All Hallow's Eve, from its beginnings to the present, examines the ancient origins as well as its traditions and celebrations, from costuming to bobbing for apples. Jack-o-lanterns, black cats, and witches are explained. Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins lurk behind every page.

The book traces the contributions of America's immigrants to the holiday, documenting the beliefs each ethnic group has added to the mix. Related recipes, poems, songs, and photos perfectly complement the meticulously documented text. The result is the most educational and entertaining examination of Halloween, its myths, and its truths.