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 (4.5 / 5.0) Designed by Tim Shaner and lavishly illustrated throughout with nineteenth-century artwork, this book will remind you of the origins of Christmas, the roots of modern celebration, and the current significance of the holiday in each of our lives. There have been many successful Christmas titles before The Little Big Book of Christmas, but none so complete, timeless, and delightful, and none in such a beautifully designed format. A great big fat international Christmas book chock-full of stories, songs, biblical verse, Christmas lore, and the best recipes ever, including: Gospel stories, including those of St. Luke and St. Matthew Poetry of William Shakespeare, John Milton, Robert Frost, Clement Clarke Moore, Ogden Nash, W. H. Auden, and Lewis Carroll Stories from Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Dickens, O. Henry, Langston Hughes, Norman Vincent Peale, Lincoln Steffens, and Selma Lagerlof Christmas lore from Dorothy Thompson, Norman Vincent Peale, and Francis P. Church Carols galore including "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Silent Night," "The First Noel," "Joy to the World," and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" The best holiday recipes, including New England Eggnog, Classic Sugar Cookies, Hot Chocolate with Peppermint Sticks, A Brownie Christmas Tree, Swedish Gingerbread Cookies, Refrigerator Cookies, and Scandinavian Glogg. There have been many successful Christmas titles before The Little Big Book of Christmas, but none so complete, timeless, and delightful, and none in such a beautifully designed format. A great big fat international Christmas book chock-full of stories, songs, biblical verse, Christmas lore, and the best recipes ever, including:Gospel stories, including those of St. Luke and St. Matthew Poetry of William Shakespeare, John Milton, Robert Frost, Clement Clarke Moore, Ogden Nash, W. H. Auden, and Lewis Carroll Stories from Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Dickens, O. Henry, Langston Hughes, Norman Vincent Peale, Lincoln Steffens, and Selma Lagerlof Christmas lore from Dorothy Thompson, Norman Vincent Peale, and Francis P. Church Carols galore including "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Silent Night," "The First Noel," "Joy to the World," and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" The best holiday recipes, including New England Eggnog, Classic Sugar Cookies, Hot Chocolate with Peppermint Sticks, A Brownie Christmas Tree, Swedish Gingerbread Cookies, Refrigerator Cookies, and Scandinavian Glogg. 
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$99.99 |
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(4.5 / 5.0) Celebrate Midsummer-A Day of Warmth and Light, A Night of Fairy Folk and Magic
Midsummer is one of the most ancient, widespread, and joyful Pagan festivals. The sun rises to the height of its power on the summer solstice, and Midsummer Eve is filled with fairy mischief and magic. Anna Franklin reveals the origins and customs of this enchanting holiday with: Myths and lore: The gods and goddesses of Midsummer, rolling wheels, the Midsummer tree, circle dancing, and torchlight processionsMidsummer magic and divination: Fairy contact, spells, empowering magical tools with solstice sun energy, Midsummer Eve pillow divinationTraditional summertime treats: Elderflower Fritters, Gooseberry Fool, Coamhain Soup, Strawberry Wine, Heather Ale, Clary Sage TeaSeasonal rituals: Rite of the Oak King and the Holly King, Cornish Flower Ritual, Witch Rite for Midsummer Day, Drawing Down the SunMidsummer herb craft: Gathering and drying herbs for magical oils, incenses, inks, and teas; herb recipes, from Amun Ra to Sun Goddess OilFirst Runner Up for the 2003 Coaltion of Visionary Resources (COVR) Award for Best Non-fiction Book
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$48.99 |
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(4.5 / 5.0) 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.
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$8.75 |
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 (3.5 / 5.0) It wouldn't be Christmas without the "things." How they came to mean so much, and to play such a prominent role in America's central holiday, is the tale told in this delightful and edifying book. In a style characteristically engaging and erudite, Karal Ann Marling, one of our most trenchant observers of American culture, describes the outsize spectacle that Christmas has become, showing us the provenance and significance of each of its essential parts: the decorated trees and holiday lights, the cards and gifts and wrapping papers, the toy villages and store displays and Macy's holiday parade, Bing Crosby and Santa Claus. Viewing Christmas through the media of mass culture--engravings and lithographs, magazine fiction, pictorial ads, news photos, cards, and movies--Marling tells us how the beloved Christmas tree grew out of a much-reprinted image of Queen Victoria and her family gathered around a decorated fir; how Santa Claus lost his provincial Dutch character and turned into the jolly old soul we know; how Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol borrowed from Washington Irving's imaginings of what Christmas must have been like in Merrie Olde England; and how the holiday, balancing between the private and public realms, conferred a central and defining role on women. A celebration of the visual culture of the season, Merry Christmas! offers captivating evidence that Christmas in America is primarily a secular celebration of abundance, goodwill, and familial identity, expressed in a multitude of material ways.
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$14.46 |
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 (4.0 / 5.0) Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind, and Spirit takes the reader on an informed and engaging journey into the social and ritual life of contemporary Vietnam. Created to accompany the first major collaboration between a Vietnamese museum and an American museum on an exhibition of Vietnamese culture, this book moves beyond the troubled wartime history of both nations to a deeper portrayal of how Vietnamese of different ages, ethnicities, occupations, and circumstances live at the start of the twenty-first century. The contributors--most of whom live and work in Vietnam, while others have spent many years in intimate association with Vietnamese life--offer a unique perspective on the country and its diverse cultural mosaic. The text is complemented by a rich collection of photographs and illustrations that capture the complexity and nuance of daily life.
The journeys portrayed in this volume cut across virtually every domain of Vietnamese experience. Some take place on roads, railways, rivers, and footpaths, as family members come home for the New Year and traders carry goods precariously balanced on bicycles. Others are metaphorical: life is a journey marked by significant rituals, and the year is a journey mapped by a calendar with holidays as milestones along the way. Souls travel to the netherworld, while gods and ancestors return to the human world during celebrations in their honor. Although the Vietnam War dominated the consciousness of a generation of Americans, few understand the country and few can imagine what it is like today. Appearing more than a decade after Vietnam's entrance into the global market and more than a quarter century after the cessation of hostilities between the Vietnamese and U.S. governments, this book provides a new understanding of how Vietnamese live, work, and celebrate critical passages of life and time. Copublished with the American Museum of Natural History and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
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$19.99 |
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 (5.0 / 5.0) Birthdays are milestones on our journey through life. The authors say, 'We wrote this book for the many people who wish to find ways of bringing beauty, meaning and a touch of magic into the celebration of birthdays.' Packed with recipes, stories, songs and games, and ideas for cards, decorations and presents, The Birthday Book is spiced with quotations from famous birthday celebrants and amusing historical anecdotes.
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$21.81 |
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(3.5 / 5.0) The United States is a nation that touts its diversity, but there is one tradition that all Americans love to share. Every year on the Fourth of July, Americans celebrate the founding of the nation. Independence Day is the greatest of national traditions, but much of the inherited lore that surrounds the Fourth is myth and legend, not history.
Even the fact that the holiday is celebrated on the fourth is misleading, as the Declaration of Independence was in fact penned on July 2nd, 1776. Jefferson did not write it himself, nor was it intended to mark the birth of a new nation. In this remarkable and wonderful work of research and narrative, Peter de Bolla teases out the true story of the Fourth of July. De Bolla traces the holiday's history from 1776 through the Civil War, the Cold War, and the present. This enlightening exploration of the ritual celebration and mythology of America's birthday offers a fascinating window into the history of our nation and our people.
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$1.99 |
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(4.0 / 5.0) The Pagan Thanksgiving for the harvest
It's the season of changing colors; crisp air filled with the scent of wood smoke; and festivals offering wine, hot cider, and apple pie. At this time of equal day and night, we give thanks for the harvest that will sustain us through the dark winter months. This book explores the history, legends, and traditions of the season that is honored from the Far East to the Celtic Lands, and from Scandinavia to South America. Create your own Mabon tradition with the help of the book's many recipes, magical workings, equinox rituals, and crafts for all ages. Part of Llewellyn's successful series on each of the eight Pagan sabbats, or holidaysThe author is well-known throughout the Pagan communityFor anyone who celebrates the turning of the seasons and the ancient holy daysRelevant to any culturally-based path
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$19.68 |
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(5.0 / 5.0) Around The World Through Holidays: Cross Curricular Readers Theatre includes scripts for twelve plays adaptable for any of the reading or performance methods of Readers Theatre presentation. Each play introduces students to a specific world culture by looking at holidays celebrated in that culture. The structure of the book introduces holidays chronologically throughout a calendar year--one play per month. The focus is on literacy and social studies, so the book is not tied to the traditional nine-month school calendar. Any play can be read when the student is studying its culture, rather than during the month in which the holiday is celebrated. In addition to social studies and literacy activities, science and math activities are also included. Suggestions for creating a classroom party to celebrate each holiday and helpful appendices are included as well. Grade level 4-6. 3
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$23.99 |
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This beautifully illustrated volume features work by leading writers and experts on carnival from around the world, and includes two stunning photo essays by acclaimed photographers Pablo Delano and Jeffrey Chock. Editor Milla Cozart Riggio presents a body of work that takes the reader on a fascinating journey exploring the various aspects of carnival - its traditions, its history, its music, its politics - and prefaces each section with an illuminating essay. Traditional carnival theory, based mainly on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and Victor Turner, has long defined carnival as inversive or subversive. The essays in this groundbreaking anthology collectively reverse that trend, offering a re-definition of 'carnival' that focuses not on the hierarchy it temporarily displaces or negates, but a one that is rooted in the actual festival event. Carnival details its new theory in terms of a carnival that is at once representative and distinctive: The Carnival of Trinidad - the most copied yet least studied major carnival in the world.
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$37.97 |