At Eastertime, the most important holiday in the Christian world, religious processions in many Latin American countries pass over ornate street "carpets" fashioned from colored sawdust, flowers and fruit. Children in Finland and Sweden dress as "Easter witches." In the Caribbean, those who swim on Good Friday risk bad luck. In the Philippines, some penitents volunteer to be crucified. In some European countries, Easter Monday is the day for dousing women with water. With 240 entries, this book explores these and scores of other unusual and sometimes bizarre international Holy Week customs, both sacred and secular, from pilgrimages to Jerusalem to classic seasonal films and television specials.
From the manger of Jesus Christ to the 21st century, this encyclopedia explores more than 2,000 years of Christmas past and present through 966 entries packed with a wide variety of historical and pop-culture subjects. Entries detail customs and traditions from around the world as well as classic Christmas movies, TV series/specials and animated cartoons. Arranged alphabetically by entry name, the book includes the historical background of popular sacred and secular songs as well as accounts of beloved literary works with Christmas themes from such noted authors as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Andersen, Pearl Buck, Henry Van Dyke and others. All things Christmas are available here in one comprehensive volume.
Among the world's myriad cultures and their associated calendars, the idea of a "New Year" is relative and hardly specifies a universal celebration or even a universal point in time. Ways of celebrating the New Year range from the observances of religious rituals and superstitions to social gatherings featuring particular foods, music, dancing, noisemaking, fireworks and drinking. This first encyclopedia devoted exclusively to the New Year includes 320 entries that give a global perspective on the New Year, beyond its traditional Western associations with Christmas. National or regional entries detail the principal traditions and customs of 130 countries, while 27 entries discuss major calendar systems in current use or of significant historical interest. The remaining entries cover a wide variety of subjects including literary works, movies, and television specials; the customs of specific ethnic groups; universal customs such as toasting and drinking; football bowl games and parades; and the New Year celebrations at the White House and the Vatican.
From the skyrocketing AIDS rate in Haiti to the oppressive pollution in industrial China, from the violent street culture of Nigeria to the crippling poverty in Nicaragua, from child trafficking in Thailand to child marriages in India, this jam-packed six-volume set explores all these issues and more in an unprecedented look at the world's children at the dawn of the 21st century. In recent years, while many countries have enjoyed a higher standard of living and improved working conditions, others have been torn apart by war and incapacitated by famine, and are struggling to improve life for their children and their future. Recent concern over the world's children has resulted in a global attempt to define what constitutes an acceptable childhood. New attention has been paid, not only to healthcare and secondary education, but also to the right to play and increased access to technology. The UN's codification of children's rights has done much to expand our understanding of what is needed for healthy growth and development of children and youth. Organized by region, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Children's Issues Worldwide is the first globally focused set of this magnitude, offering extensive, up-to-date coverage of these critical issues. Original chapters accessibly synthesize current data on key topics, including education, play and recreation, child labor, family, health, laws and legal status, religious life, abuse and neglect, and growing up in the 21st century.
From the ongoing flood of misinformation to the swift changes occasioned by the pandemic, a myriad of factors is spurring our profession to rethink reference services. Luckily, this classic text is back in a newly overhauled edition that thoughtfully addresses the evolving reference landscape. Designed to complement every introductory library reference course, Cassell and Hiremath's book also serves as the perfect resource to guide current practitioners in their day-to-day work. It teaches failsafe methods for identifying important materials by matching specific types of questions to the best available sources, regardless of format. Guided by a national advisory board of educators and experts, this thoroughly updated text presents chapters covering fundamental concepts, major reference sources, and special topics while also offering fresh insights on timely issues, including a basic template for the skills required and expectations demanded of the reference librarian; the pandemic’s effect on reference services and how the ingenuity employed by libraries in providing remote and virtual reference is here to stay; a new chapter dedicated to health information, with a special focus on health equity and information sources; selecting and evaluating reference materials, with strategies for keeping up to date; a heightened emphasis on techniques for evaluating sources for misinformation and ways to give library users the tools to discern facts vs. “fake facts”; reference as programming, readers’ advisory services, developmentally appropriate material for children and young adults, and information literacy; evidence-based guidance on handling microaggressions in reference interactions, featuring discussions of cultural humility and competence alongside recommended resources on implicit bias; managing, assessing, and improving reference services; and the future of information and reference services, encapsulating existing models, materials, and services to project possible evolutions in the dynamic world of reference
This comprehensive reference work introduces food culture from more than 150 countries and cultures around the world—including some from remote and unexpected peoples and places. From babka to baklava to the groundnut stew of Ghana, food culture can tell us where we've been—and maybe even where we're going. Filled with succinct, yet highly informative entries, the four-volume Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia covers all of the planet's nation-states, as well as various tribes and marginalized peoples. Thus, in addition to coverage on countries as disparate as France, Ethiopia, and Tibet, there are also entries on Roma Gypsies, the Maori of New Zealand, and the Saami of northern Europe. There is even a section on food in outer space, detailing how and what astronauts eat and how they prepare for space travel as far as diet and nutrition are concerned. Each entry offers information about foodstuffs, meals, cooking methods, recipes, eating out, holidays and celebrations, and health and diet. Vignettes help readers better understand other cultures, while the inclusion of selected recipes lets them recreate dishes from other lands.
Home cooks and gourmets, chefs and restaurateurs, epicures, and simple food lovers of all stripes will delight in this smorgasbord of the history and culture of food and drink. Professor of Culinary History Andrew Smith and nearly 200 authors bring together in 770 entries the scholarship on wide-ranging topics from airline and funeral food to fad diets and fast food; drinks like lemonade, Kool-Aid, and Tang; foodstuffs like Jell-O, Twinkies, and Spam; and Dagwood, hoagie, and Sloppy Joe sandwiches.
Every holiday has a history, and this set sets out to describe them all. A chronologically organized reference guide to the history of American celebratory days, past, present, and emergent, it focuses on each holiday's cultural and political significance.
