This two-volume work presents a comprehensive survey of all the ways people celebrate religious life around the globe. Religious Celebrations is an alphabetically organized encyclopedia that covers more than 800 celebratory occasions from all of the world's major religious communities as well as many of the minor faith traditions. The encyclopedia provides a complete reference tool for examining the myriad ways people worldwide celebrate their religious lives across religious boundaries, providing information on numerous celebratory activities never before covered in a reference work. Offering the most comprehensive coverage of religious holidays ever assembled, this two-volume book covers festivals, commemorations, holidays, and annual religious gatherings all over the world, with special attention paid to the celebrations in larger countries. Entries written by distinguished researchers and specialists on different religious communities capture the unique intensity of each event, be it fasting or feasting, frenzied activity or the universal cessation of work, a huge gathering of the faithful en masse or a small family-centered event. The work spotlights celebrations that currently exist without overlooking now-abandoned celebrations that still impact the modern world.

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.

Volume two reveals the extraordinary diversity of ancient Roman religion. A comprehensive sourcebook, it presents a wide range of documents illustrating religious life in the Roman world - from the foundations of the city in the eighth century BC to the Christian capital more than a thousand years later. Each document is given a full introduction, explanatory notes and bibliography, and acts as a starting point for further discussion. Through paintings, sculptures, coins and inscriptions, as well as literary texts in translation, the book explores the major themes and problems of Roman religion, such as sacrifice, the religious calendar, divination, ritual, and priesthood. Starting from the archaeological traces of the earliest cults of the city, it finishes with a series of texts in which Roman authors themselves reflect on the nature of their own religion, its history, even its funny side. Judaism and Christianity are given full coverage, as important elements in the religious world of the Roman empire.

Countless different festivals are celebrated all over the world throughout the year. Some are national holidays, celebrated for religious and cultural reasons, or to mark an important date in history, while others are just for fun. Give thanks and tuck into a delicious meal with friends and family at Thanksgiving, get caught up in a messy tomato fight in Spain at La Tomatina, add a splash of color to your day at the Holi festival of colors and celebrate the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. With fact-filled text accompanied by beautifully bright illustrations from the wonderfully talented Chris Corr, prepare yourself for a journey as we travel around the world celebrating and uncovering a visual feast of culture.

Designed for students, scholars, and general readers, this work focuses on folklore forms and methods from a cross-cultural, theoretical perspective. Folklore emphasizes those bodies of North American and European scholarship that have influenced each other most profoundly since the discipline's inception. The entries provide an introduction that facilitates the pursuit of more specialized topics and other bodies of scholarship. Topics range from such traditional subjects as "festival" and "folktale" to cutting-edge entries such as "computer-mediated folklore" and "postmodernism." In most cases, a longer, more comprehensive essay format for entries has been favored over shorter entries. Entries are cross-referenced, and each includes a select bibliography to serve as a guide to in depth research. - Entries are cross referenced, and each includes a select bibliography to serve as a guide to in depth research

Around the World in 500 Festivals is a rare book that will fascinate and inspire. A large-format, beautifully illustrated coffee-table volume, it is a photographic exploration of the richness and variety of the world's most colourful, moving, joyful, and spectacular celebrations. Thousands of festivals, great and small, take place around the world every year. The book contains: - A unique selection of 500 unmissable festivals around the world - More than 200 full-colour photographs that capture the spirit and immediacy of the events - Special features in the form of extended photographic essays - Original research and stunning photography by an internationally recognized writer-photographer Around the World in 500 Festivals takes this approach to a different level. It will help people who want to plan their trip to coincide with a festival. It will also enthrall and inform armchair travelers everywhere. Elegantly designed and lavishly produced, it is exceptional value for money and makes a perfect gift for travellers and readers of all ages, backgrounds, and cultures.

This book documents hundreds of customs and traditions practiced in countries outside of the United States, showcasing the diversity of birth, coming-of-age, and death celebrations worldwide. From the beginning of our lives to the end, all of humanity celebrates life's milestones through traditions and unique customs. In the United States, we have specific events like baby showers, rites of passage such as Bat and Bar Mitzvahs and "sweet 16" birthday parties, and sober end-of-life traditions like obituaries and funeral services that honor those who have died. But what kinds of customs and traditions are practiced in other countries? How do people in other cultures welcome babies, prepare to enter into adulthood, and commemorate the end of the lives of loved ones? This three-volume encyclopedia covers more than 300 birth, life, and death customs, with the books' content organized chronologically by life stage. Volume 1 focuses on birth and childhood customs, Volume 2 documents adolescent and early-adulthood customs, and Volume 3 looks at aging and death customs. The entries in the first volume examine pre-birth traditions, such as baby showers and other gift-giving events, and post-birth customs, such as naming ceremonies, child-rearing practices, and traditions performed to ward off evil or promote good health. The second volume contains information about rites of passage as children become adults, including indigenous initiations, marriage customs, and religious ceremonies. The final volume concludes with coverage on customs associated with aging and death, such as retirement celebrations, elaborate funeral processions, and the creation of fantasy coffins. The set features beautiful color inserts that illustrate examples of celebrations and ceremonies and includes an appendix of excerpts from primary documents that include legislation on government-accepted names, wedding vows, and maternity/paternity leave regulations.

Placemaking has become a key concept in many disciplines. Due to an increase in digitization, mobilities, migration and rapid changes to the urban environments, it is important to learn how planning and social experts practice it in different contexts. Placemaking in Practice provides an inventory of practices, reflecting on different issues related to placemaking from a pan European perspective. It brings different cases, perspectives, and results analysed under the same purpose, to advance knowledge on placemaking, the actors engaged and results for people. It is backed by an intensive review of recent literature on placemaking, engagement, methods and activism results - towards developing a new placemaking agenda. Placemaking in Practice combines theory, methodology, methods (including digital ones) and their application in a pan-European context and imbedded into a relevant historical context. Contributors are: Branislav Antonić, Tatisiana Astrouskaya,Lucija Ažman Momirski, Anna Louise Bradley, Lucia Brisudová, Monica Bocci, David Buil-Gil, Nevena Dakovic, Alexandra Delgado Jiménez, Despoina Dimelli, Aleksandra Djukic, Nika Đuho, Agisilaos Economou, Ayse Erek, Mastoureh Fathi, Juan A. García-Esparza, Gilles Gesquiere, Nina Goršič, Preben Hansen, Carola Hein, Conor Horan, Erna Husukić, Kinga Kimic, Roland Krebs, Jelena Maric, Edmond Manahasa, Laura Martinez-Izquierdo, Marluci Menezes, Tim Mavric, Bahanaur Nasya, Mircea Negru, Matej Nikšič, Jelena Maric, Paulina Polko, Clara Julia Reich, Francesco Rotondo, Ljiljana Rogac Mijatovi, Tatiana Ruchinskaya, Carlos Smaniotto Costa, Miloslav Šerý, Reka Solymosi, Dina Stober, Juli Székely, Nagayamma Tavares Aragão, Piero Tiano, Cor Wagenaar, and Emina Zejnilović

This book uses food as a lens through which to explore important matters of society and culture. In exploring why and how people eat around the globe, the text focuses on issues of health, conflict, struggle, contest, inequality, and power. Whether because of its necessity, pleasure, or ubiquity, the world of food (and its lore) proves endlessly fascinating to most people. The story of food is a narrative filled with both human striving and human suffering. However, many of today's diners are only dimly aware of the human price exacted for that comforting distance from the lived-world realities of food justice struggles. With attention to food issues ranging from local farming practices to global supply chains, this book examines how food’s history and geography remain inextricably linked to sociopolitical experiences of trauma connected with globalization, such as colonization, conquest, enslavement, and oppression. The main text is structured alphabetically around a set of 70 ingredients, from almonds to yeast. Each ingredient's story is accompanied by recipes. Along with the food profiles, the encyclopedia features sidebars. These are short discussions of topics of interest related to food, including automats, diners, victory gardens, and food at world’s fairs. This project also brings a social justice perspective to its content—weighing debates concerning food access, equity, insecurity, and politics.

This book is the second volume of Series on China-ASEAN Relations. This volume presents comprehensive and in-depth studies of China-ASEAN cooperation and development by Chinese scholars from the China-ASEAN Research Institute of Guangxi University and the China-ASEAN Collaborative Innovation Center for Regional Development. The book is divided into six parts. Part one is the general report including the introduction of China-ASEAN cooperation, achievements and problems in politics, economy, diplomacy, security, defense, maritime and cultural aspects. Part two studies the relation and cooperation between China and individual ASEAN nations, including the evaluation of each ASEAN nation's politics, economy, diplomacy, society and culture. Part three analyzes individual ASEAN country's response to the Belt and the Road Initiative and the implementation of the initiative. Part four and five study important issues of Southeast Asia, including South China Sea arbitration case initiated by the Philippines, the construction of the ASEAN Community, Myanmar's elections, the Bangkok explosion and Vietnam's accession to the TPP. Part six lists the major events and the data on China-ASEAN economic, trade and investment cooperation and the trade between China's provinces (autonomous regions) and ASEAN in 20 tables.