Holidays Books - Page 3

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.

Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture

Rosemary Gong

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Basic Introduction 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great book that gives a basic overview of Chinese traditions. If you want to know more details,(such as the myths and Gods that relate to every event) there are other books. It is written in an easy format, very assessible to people who are not Chinese. I give it 5 stars for what it is-- an introductory-style book on Chinese traditions.

Editorial Review:

Good Luck Life is the first book to explain the meanings of Chinese rituals and to offer advice on when and how to plan for Chinese holidays and special occasions such as Chinese weddings, the Red Egg and Ginger party to welcome a new baby, significant birthdays, and the inevitable funeral. Packed with practical information, Good Luck Life contains an abundance of facts, legends, foods, old-village recipes, and quick planning guides for Chinese New Year, Clear Brightness, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn, and many other festivals.

Written with warmth and wit, Good Luck Life is beautifully designed as an easily accessible cultural guide that includes an explanation of the Lunar Calendar, tips on Chinese table etiquette for dining with confidence, and dos and don'ts from wise Auntie Lao, who recounts ancient Chinese beliefs and superstitions. This is your map for celebrating a good luck life.

The Curious World of Christmas: Celebrating All That Is Weird, Wonderful, and Festive

Niall Edworthy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A fascinating miscellany that celebrates all things Christmas from the author of The Curious Gardener’s Almanac.

Drawing from more than two thousand years of history and culture, this collection of anecdotes, customs, tips, and recipes features more than 1,000 entries honoring one of the world’s most celebrated holidays. This unpredictable, addictive gem weaves in famous quotations, traditional sayings, verses, and wisdom to create a book that will be enjoyed long after the Christmas tree is down and the turkey leftovers finished off. Each page yields tidbits on everything from the real reason why December 25th was chosen as the celebratory day and a 19th-century turkey recipe to the origins of kissing under mistletoe and statistics showing why Christmas is proven to be more stressful than divorce or burglary. Chapter topics include:

• Farting Dwarves and Peacock Pie (or, How Our Ancestors Celebrated Christmas)

• Will the Real Father Christmas Please Stand Up (or, The Origins of Santa Claus)

• Happy Reunions, Terrible Tantrums (or, Christmas and the Family)

• Reindeer Sausages and Minced Coffins (or, Christmas Food and Drink)

• And much more

With enough curiosities to intrigue, amuse, and enlighten even the grumpiest Scrooge, this is the perfect gift book for anyone who counts down the months until their favorite holiday.

LIFE: America's Parade

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A nice celebration of the parade! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a good photographic book celebrating the Macy's Parade. The pictures of the balloons and floats over the years are great--my nephew has enjoyed it as much as I have. A good gift for kids and adults alike--I'm giving a few as gifts.

A former Macy's employee's viewpoint 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book tells the whole story of how the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade has become America's number 1 parade. It tells how it has grown. The story of the floats, the ballons and the guest artists. A book the whole family can enjoy.

Editorial Review:

The editors of LIFEhave opened up the Macys photo archives to bring you a collection of never before seen pictures of one of Americas greatest holiday celebrations, Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. Follow LIFEas it takes you on a historical journey into the heart of one of the worlds largest and most anticipated annual events.

All Around the Year: Holidays and Celebrations in American Life

Jack Santino

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Editorial Review:

Jack Santino's guide to such festivities is a wonderfully readable exploration of holidays, family and neighborhood rituals, and life-cycle customs and celebrations. He draws on history, anthropology, popular culture, and folklore to reveal the intricate relationships between holidays and the roles they play in people's personal and public lives.

Christmas Customs and Traditions

Clement A. Miles

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Well Worth Reading 4 out of 5 stars.
55 of 56 people found this review helpful.

This book was originally published in 1912 under the title "Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan".

This Book not only covers Christmas, but Halloween and various Saint's Days.

Mr. Miles does an interesting job of exploring the lore behind Christmas breads and cakes, the Yule log, decorating, and the Christmas Dramas of Europe and the British Isles, earlier this century.

A quaint Northumberland ritual utilizing Holly leaves is presented from page 275 of this work:

"....Nine leaves are taken up and tied with nine knots into a
"handkerchief, and put under the pillow by a person who
"desires prophetic dreams.
"For this purpose smooth leaves (without prickles)
"must be employed...."
The next sentence informs us that "holly is hated by witches"....

A twist on the familiar "Kissing under the Mistletoe" is given on the previous page, and we are informed that after each kiss, the boy removes a berry from the bough, and "when the berries were all picked, the privilege ceased."

You will also find a scattering of black and white reproductions of paintings, a wonderfully etched reproduction of Albreht Durer's "Madonna and Child", as well as a bibliography, notes and an index.

This book is well worth it's modest price.

Editorial Review:

Comprehensive, nonsectarian treasury details the origins and evolution of Christmas, and significance of religious and secular practices during the Yuletide. Includes caroling, gifts, Yule logs, much more. Scholarly, yet fascinating.

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy

Barbara Ehrenreich

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“Fascinating . . . An admirably lucid, level-headed history of outbreaks of joy from Dionysus to the Grateful Dead.”—Terry Eagleton, The Nation

Widely praised as “impressive” (The Washington Post Book World), “ambitious” (The Wall Street Journal), and “alluring” (The Los Angeles Times), Dancing in the Streets explores a human impulse that has been so effectively suppressed that we lack even a term for it: the desire for collective joy, historically expressed in revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing.

Drawing on a wealth of history and anthropology, Barbara Ehrenreich uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. From the earliest orgiastic Mesopotamian rites to the medieval practice of Christianity as a “danced religion” and the transgressive freedoms of carnival, she demonstrates that mass festivities have long been central to the Western tradition. In recent centuries, this festive tradition has been repressed, cruelly and often bloodily. But as Ehrenreich argues in this original, exhilarating, and ultimately optimistic book, the celebratory impulse is too deeply ingrained in human nature ever to be completely extinguished.

Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Kwanzaa: With Candles, Community, and the Fruits of the Harvest (Holidays Around the World)

Carolyn B. Otto

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Editorial Review:

Celebrate Kwanzaa continues the spectacular Holidays Around the World series by focusing on this African-American holiday, which falls during the festive, gift-giving season and is celebrated by families, communities, and schools throughout America. With succinct, lively text and beautiful photographs, the book celebrates African-American culture and helps us to understand and appreciate this special holiday.

Over the course of seven days, African Americans, families and friends, come together to light the candles that symbolize their past and future—and their unity. They gather as a community to make music and to dance; to feast on harvest foods and the good things of the earth; and to exchange simple, often homemade, gifts. Readers are introduced to the symbols of the holiday, such as the mkeka (a special placemat), kinara (candleholder), and kikombe cha umoja (unity cup). Important concepts, like the seven principles, are explained. In addition, a note from the book's consultant, aimed at parents and teachers, puts the holiday in its full cultural and historical perspective.

A Nantucket Christmas

Leslie Linsley

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Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Crafts & Hobbies -> Seasonal

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

People from all over the United States come to Nantucket Island to celebrate Christmas in the charming setting of days gone by. Lamplights shine along cobblestoned Main Street, lined with Christmas trees heaped with thousands of lights. Every year, the week after Thanksgiving a select number of houses--most more than 200 years old--are chosen to be on a house tour for visiting tourists and islanders.

Leslie Linsley, renowned style and craft expert and author of the recently published Leslie Linsley's Decoupage, is also a resident of Nantucket. Now for the first time in paperback, A NANTUCKET CHRISTMAS shows you ideas for Christmas trees, door decorations, mantels, and much more, all inspired by the homes of Nantucket. Also included are projects such as ornaments and stockings as well as festive recipes and inspirations for table settings and entertaining.

Whether you're creating a wreath, banister decoration, or table setting, A NANTUCKET CHRISTMAS will inspire you to add a bit of early America to your Christmas tradition.

Beltane: Springtime Rituals, Lore and Celebration

Raven Grimassi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I like Grimassi, no matter what he writes about 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Grimassi usually tackles a much broader scope of subject matter and by limiting himself to Beltane he has undertaken a task that might seem outside his usual habits. But he pulls it off with good writing and capable research. By limiting himself to specifics of the Sabbat he is forced to narrow his focus more than is his wont, but what he does write about, he writes about well and thoroughly. To be honest, the entire Llewellyn Sabbat series has seemed kind of light-handed, so I can't call this Grimassi's finest hour, but it's still quite good for the kind of book it is.

Traditions! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Raven Grimassi is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. He writes about many traditions and will show similarities to help you understand where and how these traditions began. Whether you're just researching or Wiccan, I would recommend this and any of this author's books. Yet another to add to your library.

Editorial Review:

Rediscover the ancient Pagan festival of May Day Grimassi reveals the history behind the revelry and offers countless way to celebrate this sacred season of fertility, growth, and gain: arts and craft projects; delicious celebratory recipes; Beltane spells to attract money, success, and love; springtime rituals and traditions; May Day magic and divination; and more.