America's Favorite Holidays: Candid HistoriesAmerica’s Favorite Holidays explores how five of America’s culturally important holidays—Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving—came to be what they are today, seasonal and religious celebrations heavily influenced by modern popular culture. Deftly distilling information from a wide range of sources, Bruce David Forbes reveals often-surprising answers to questions about each holiday’s traditions. Was Christmas always as commercialized as it is today? Is Thanksgiving a religious or secular holiday? When did we begin trick-or-treating on Halloween? Appealing and insightful, America’s Favorite Holidays satisfies our curiosity about the origins of our holidays and the fascinating ways in which religion and culture mix. |
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Contents
Christmas | 13 |
Valentines Day | 45 |
Easter | 79 |
Halloween | 115 |
Thanksgiving | 153 |
Afterword | 191 |
List of Illustrations and Credits | 205 |
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Common terms and phrases
addition adults annual became become Bede began birth bunnies called candy cards Catholic celebration Celtic Celts century Chaucer Christ Christians church colonies commercialization costumes courtly love days of thanksgiving death December December 25 declared decorations developed early Easter egg England English Eostre Europe example feasts festival five holidays Gelasius gifts goddess gospels Granger Collection Halloween hare harvest heart historian images jack-o’-lantern Jewish Julian calendar later layer Lupercalia martyrs meal meaning million modern popular culture movie national holiday National Retail Federation Native November observance Oruch parade participants party Passover percent Pilgrim and Indian Plymouth poem practices Puritans rabbits recommitment refer religion religious resurrection of Jesus ritual calendar Roman Saint Nicholas Saint Valentine Samhain Santa Claus season similar special days spring story symbol Thanksgiving Day themes tion today’s tradition trick-or-treating turkeys United Valentine’s Day winter witches words wrote Year’s York
Bibliographic information
| Title | America's Favorite Holidays: Candid Histories |
| Author | Bruce David Forbes |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Univ of California Press, 2015 |
| ISBN | 0520284720, 9780520284722 |
| Length | 222 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / United States / General Religion / History Religion / Holidays / Christian Social Science / Holidays (non-religious) |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |