The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal Holidays |
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The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal Holidays
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by Anthony F. Aveni
Sales Rank: 807334
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$0.02
At Amazon
on 6-22-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 224 pages
Published by: Oxford University Press, USA December 16, 2002
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0195150244
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0195150247
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
Weighs: 1.2 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Why do we celebrate Easter by telling children that a rabbit will bring them eggs and candy? Why do we make New Year's resolutions? Why do we engage in rituals like bobbing for apples on Halloween, watching football on Thanksgiving, and giving chocolate on Valentine's Day? Aveni, a professor of astronomy and anthropology at Colgate, provides answers to these and many other questions in this delightful little book about the origins and modern development of our holidays. Our red-letter days, he contends, have evolved over the centuries as various cultures use them to reflect specific cultural concerns. For example, Halloween can be traced back to the Celtic festival Samhain, the official first day of winter in early medieval Ireland. On that day, spirits roamed the earth, revisiting their homes, pleading with their relatives for prayers, and eating a warm meal before they returned to their graves. While the modern celebration of Halloween resembles Samhain, Aveni argues that the holiday provides adults with an opportunity to cope with the fear of the unknown by allowing children to dress as ghosts, goblins and spirits. Overall, Aveni contends, we try to gain some control over nature and our lives by capturing the rhythms of the seasons on our calendars and by dividing our lives into segments governed by special days. Although not a thorough and definitive study of seasonal holidays, Aveni's book provides entertaining glimpses into the cultural evolution of holidays, and explores our human desire to make time work in our favor.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Review
"An enchantingly readable, sophisticated yet utterly accessible tracing of major holidays and why and where they arose. Anyone who digs into this lovely little book, I swear, will be quoting citations from it for the next generation."--Baltimore Sun
"Delightful. Aveni's book provides entertaining glimpses into the cultural evolution of holidays, and explores our human desire to make time work in our favor."--Publishers Weekly
"Anthony Aveni never ceases to amaze me with his ability to explain in charming, intelligent prose the many ways that human societies have been shaped by the rhythms and cycles of the natural world. In The Book of the Year, he's done it again."--Steven Lagerfeld, Editor, The Wilson Quarterly
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal Holidays (Paperback)
Aveni had a great opportunity, and he blew it with inconsistent delivery and narcissistic self-reference. This might be a fine book if entitled "A Professor Ruminates on Holidays". However, huge digressions into his personal experiences of solstice ceremonies in Latin America, for example, spoil the narrative rhythm and the scholarly tone. I expected a soundly researched chronological history of major seasonal holidays, with their sources, evolution, and traditions clearly articulated. If you want that too, don't buy the book. Instead, this is an interesting series of essays, with too-poor documentation, that pique the reader's interest in holidays but leaves him unsatisfied.
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The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal Holidays
Available from Amazon
Price: $0.02
Updated on 6-22-2008.
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