A SUGAR-PLUM ASSIGNMENT in a small town at Christmas brings Kelly Kirkland to Holiday House for the Christmas Carnival. It’s a dream come true, if only she can avoid Matt Lindig, the man whose betrayal broke her heart ten years ago. Single dad Matt, a staunch supporter of his town, can’t refuse the mayor when she asks him to keep an eye on the big-name journalist coming to write about their carnival. Someone has to be sure the review is positive and that the town’s problems are not revealed. By the time he learns the reporter is the one woman on earth who hates him, it’s too late to wiggle out of his commitment. Besides, whatever Kelly may think, he’s not the one who needs to be forgiven. As old secrets come to light, the path might open to a second chance at love, but only if both Matt and Kelly can trust enough to forgive.

The book highlights masqueraders on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands to include Viggo Roberts, Lionel Huntt and Asta Williams along with stories aout Paddy Moore, Fritz "Marshall" Sealey, Albert Halliday and other street performers who performed on certain holidays. Two Crucian musicians, Ernest "Prince" Galloway and Dr. Stanley Jacobs, share stories about their musical careers. The organization of the Old Time St. Croix Christmas Festival is researched and documented. The book contains information on troupe leaders such as Floyd Henderson, Lillian Bailey, Amy P. Joseph for the Eve's Garden Troupe, the Gentlemen of Jones and Genevieve "Jenny" Thurland. Former Senator Lilliana Belardo de O'Neal describes the significance of Three King's Day and the contributions of Puerto Ricans to the St. Croix Festival. The photographs provide colorful images of the costumes worn by participants during that period. The book is educational, historical and cultural for present and future generations of Virgin Islanders to enjoy.

The Christkindlmarkt am Rathaus is the largest Christmas market in Vienna and when it is so full of people you can understand why it attracts more than 3.5 million people every season. It is a people magnet. The incredible orgy of lights and visual impressions will stay with you for a very long time and bring fond memories of your Christmas in Vienna. Brilliant shooting stars and butterflies create an artificial middle sky over the Christmas market at Vienna city hall. Above this floating blanket is the immense blue of the infinite evening space sky where a few strong stars dot the dome.

This two-volume encyclopedia profiles the contemporary culture and society of every country in the Americas, from Canada and the United States to the islands of the Caribbean and the many countries of Latin America. From delicacies to dances, this encyclopedia introduces readers to cultures and customs of all of the countries of the Americas, explaining what makes each country unique while also demonstrating what ties the cultures and peoples together. The Americas profiles the 40 nations and territories that make up North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, including British, U.S., Dutch, and French territories. Each country profile takes an in-depth look at such contemporary topics as religion, lifestyle and leisure, cuisine, gender roles, dress, festivals, music, visual arts, and architecture, among many others, while also providing contextual information on history, politics, and economics. Readers will be able to draw cross-cultural comparisons, such as between gender roles in Mexico and those in Brazil. Coverage on every country in the region provides readers with a useful compendium of cultural information, ideal for anyone interested in geography, social studies, global studies, and anthropology.

Throughout the world, there is no holiday celebrated quite like Carnival. This book examines the history and pagan roots of the holiday, and details different customs unique to particular areas, including Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America.

Although much has been written on the Afro-Catholic syncretic religions of Vodou, Candomble, and Santeria, the Spiritual Baptists--an Afro-Caribbean religion based on Protestant Christianity--have received little attention. This work offers the first detailed examination of the Spiritual Baptists or "Converted". Based on 18 months of fieldwork on the Island of St. Vincent (where the religion arose) and among Vincentian immigrants in Brooklyn, Zane's analysis makes a contribution to the literature on African-American and African Diaspora religion and the anthropology of religion more generally.

For many, December 26 is more than the day after Christmas. Boxing Day is one of the world’s most celebrated cultural holidays. As a legacy of British colonialism, Boxing Day is observed throughout Africa and parts of the African diaspora, but, unlike Trinidadian Carnival and Mardi Gras, fewer know of Bermuda’s Gombey dancers, Bahamian Junkanoo, Dangriga’s Jankunú and Charikanari, St. Croix’s Crucian Christmas Festival, and St. Kitts’s Sugar Mas. One Grand Noise: Boxing Day in the Anglicized Caribbean World delivers a highly detailed, thought-provoking examination of the use of spectacular vernacular to metaphorically dramatize such tropes as “one grand noise,” “foreday morning,” and from “back o’ town.” In cultural solidarity and an obvious critique of Western values and norms, revelers engage in celebratory sounds, often donning masks, cross-dressing, and dancing with abandon along thoroughfares usually deemed anathema to them. Folklorist Jerrilyn McGregory demonstrates how the cultural producers in various island locations ritualize Boxing Day as a part of their struggles over identity, class, and gender relations in accordance with time and space. Based on ethnographic study undertaken by McGregory, One Grand Noise explores Boxing Day as part of a creolization process from slavery into the twenty-first century. McGregory traces the holiday from its Egyptian origins to today and includes chapters on the Gombey dancers of Bermuda, the evolution of Junkanoo/Jankunú in The Bahamas and Belize, and J'ouvert traditions in St. Croix and St. Kitts. Through her exploration of the holiday, McGregory negotiates the ways in which Boxing Day has expanded from small communal traditions into a common history of colonialism that keeps alive a collective spirit of resistance.