Celebrations; the Complete Book of American Holidays

Celebrations; the Complete Book of American Holidays
Author: Robert J. Myers
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1972
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

Cultural and historical background and traditions of forty-five major American holidays, both secular and religious, Christian and Jewish.

American Holidays

American Holidays
Author: Barbara Klebanow
Publisher: PLA
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2005-08-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780866471961

July 4th, Election Day, Christmas, and New Year's Eve: reading about our American national holidays is not only fun, it is a way of exploring our diverse culture and values. How do we celebrate Memorial Day? What is the history of Thanksgiving? What does "Be my valentine" mean?Special features: 4 appendices of typical holiday gifts, traditional holiday songs, readings for the holidays, a listing of other holidays in the US, the official national holiday of each country in the world.

All about American Holidays

All about American Holidays
Author: Maymie Richardson Krythe
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1962
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN:

How more than 50 of our holidays originated and are observed today.

All Around the Year

All Around the Year
Author: Jack Santino
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1995
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780252065163

Whether they're decorating Easter trees or celebrating Wagner's birthday by playing recordings of his Ring cycle operas and incinerating a model of Valhalla on an outdoor barbecue to the closing strains of "Gotterdämerung," Americans know both how to create and how to celebrate holidays. Jack Santino's guide to such frivolity is a wonderfully readable exploration of holidays, periods of festivity, and life-cycle rituals and celebrations. Santino draws on history, anthropology, popular culture, and folklore to show the intricate relationships between holidays and the roles that celebrations and rituals play in people's lives.

Consumer Rites

Consumer Rites
Author: Leigh Eric Schmidt
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 1995
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780691017211

Reexamining the story of holidays in the United States, Leigh Schmidt shows that commercial appropriations of these occasions were actually as religious in form as they were secular. The new rituals of America's holiday bazaar offered a luxuriant merger of the holy and the profane - a heady blend of fashion and faith, merchandising and gift giving, profits and sentiments. In this richly illustrated book that captures both the blessings and ballyhoo of American holiday observances from the mid-eighteenth century through the twentieth, the author offers a reassessment of the "consumer rites" that various social critics have long decried for their spiritual emptiness and banal sentimentality.

The Book of the Year

The Book of the Year
Author: Anthony F. Aveni
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2004-04-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195171549

Halloween, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's Day - these are but a handful of modern holidays descended from the red-letter days, seasonal celebrations we have invented and reinvented over more than five millennia to meet our changing human needs. When we explore their origins, the holidays begin to reflect not only who we are but also why, through oppressed by time and thwarted by the forces of nature, we never seem to lose the will to control the future.

America's Favorite Holidays

America's Favorite Holidays
Author: Bruce David Forbes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2015-10-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520284712

"America's Favorite Holidays explores how five of America's culturally dominant holidays--Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving--came to be what they are today, combinations of seasonal and religious celebrations heavily influenced by modern popular culture. Distilling information from a wide range of sources, Bruce David Forbes reveals the often surprising history behind the traditions of each holiday. The book offers a comprehensive look at the Christian origins of these holidays and also touches on Passover, the religions of ancient Rome, Celtic practices, Mexico's Day of the Dead, and American civil religion. America's Favorite Holidays answers our curiosity about the origins of our holidays and the many ways in which religion and culture mix"--Provided by publisher.

America's Public Holidays, 1865-1920

America's Public Holidays, 1865-1920
Author: Ellen M. Litwicki
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2013-08-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1588344169

From the revered Memorial Day to the forgotten Lasties Day, America's Public Holidays is a timely and thoughtful analysis of how the civic culture of America has been fashioned. By analyzing how holidays became a forum for expressing patriotism, how public tradition has been invented, and how the definition of America itself was changed, Ellen Litwicki tells the intriguing story of the elite effort to create new holidays and the variety of responses from ordinary Americans.

Thanksgiving / Día de Acción de Gracias

Thanksgiving / Día de Acción de Gracias
Author: Connor Dayton
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2012-01-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1448867460

Family, friends, and food make Thanksgiving many Americans’ favorite holiday. This caption book uses accessible bilingual text to explain the holiday’s beginnings as a Pilgrim feast as well as to present some of today’s popular traditions. Colorful photographs encourage readers to learn about the meaning of Thanksgiving and to share some of their favorite parts of the holiday.

History of American Holidays

History of American Holidays
Author: Jeffrey Bensch
Publisher:
Total Pages: 134
Release: 2020-11-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781735967332

History of American Holidays brings Americans together with inspirational stories about thirteen holidays. Each approachable, short read reveals connections between history, culture, and patriotism. Black and white illustrated chapters present engaging, home-spun accounts that leave the reader with an "I didn't know that" moment, as well as a sense of pride and gratitude.