"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.

Many of America's favorite holidays, including Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and Valentines Day, originated far beyond our shores and long before our Founding Fathers were born. Some holidays, including Thanksgiving Day, the Fourth of July, Flag Day, Labor Day, Lincolns Birthday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Presidents Day, Veterans Day, and Washingtons Birthday, were uniquely grounded in Americas past. New Years Day has become a feast of college football bowl games. Still others, such as Cinco de Mayo, Columbus Day, and St. Patricks Day, are largely the products of Americas rich ethnic and cultural diversity over time. And some have a very personal and specific purpose, such as Mother's Day and Father's Day. Americas favorite holidays provide us with much more than opportunities to simply goof-off or spend money. Celebration, commemoration, contemplation, and remembrance are powerful forces that stimulate us to become better people, to enjoy life more, and to be more productive over time. Therefore, Happy Holidays!, everyone.

"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.

"Eric Sloane has here brought together engrossing facts and anecdotes and, with his observant pen, has illustrated the activities, the customs, the things that were created by the people who made their living in what some of us today are prone to call antique ways. As always in Eric Sloane's books of Americana, the reader, young and old, is delighted and charmed with America yesterday. This book is dedicated to those people who have kept the past alive, sorting out the discarded objects with fond hands, though not knowing exactly why they did so, but having the New England tradition that everything comes in handy some time if one waits long enough. Those with this feeling will welcome the 'voice of ghosts' to be found here. This book captures in its way the living heritage of America as seen in 'the things that were.'

Looks at religious diversity in the United States from mainstream faiths to Wicca and Zen, discussing faith, religious practices, traditions, and history of religions. The only multicultural survey of established and new American religions, this exhaustive three volume encyclopedia explores the fascinating interactions between religion and ethnicity, gender, regionalism, and popular culture. This three volume reference for a general and student (high school and above) audience was prepared under the editorial leadership of Laderman (American religious history and culture, Emory U. and Latino studies and religious studies, U. of California, Berkeley), with signed contributions from a long list of scholars. It comprises 26 anchor essays and some 120 supplementary essays, each with cross references and a bibliography, examining religions both within and outside of the mainstream, as well as themes such as sacred spaces, sexuality, films, and religious communities on the Internet. The final volume offers primary source documents that exemplify religious diversity. Over 150 essays written by more than 140 expert scholars, richly illustrated with images depicting a wide range of religious figures and activities, as well as significant religious sites, in the United States. An entire volume of primary source documents that captures the reality of religious diversity in American culture, including a copy of Cecil B. DeMille's essay the Screen as Religious Teacher (published in 1927) as well as more conventional materials on Christian Science, the New Age, and Buddhism, to name only a few of the religious traditions covered in this collection.

Given by Eugene Edge III.

A compilation of more than 500 beliefs, legends, superstitions, proverbs, riddles, poems, songs, dances, games, plays, pageants, fairs, foods, and processions associated with over 120 American calendar customs and festivals.