The return of a bestselling classic with new material. Full-color vintage images for the first time. A new selection of recipes from Pennsylvania's Christmas past.
Originally published in 1959 and written by a pioneer in American folk-life studies, this classic work examines the folk origins of Christmas in Pennsylvania. Composed of interviews and newspaper reports, it records holiday traditions from the eighteenth century through to the early twentieth century. In this edition, Don Yoder has contributed a new foreword, providing insight into Alfred L. Shoemaker's influential career and the significance of this still vital work, and an afterword, offering a look at recent research on Christmas customs.
Reexamining the story of holidays in the United States, Leigh Schmidt shows that commercial appropriations of these occasions were actually as religious in form as they were secular. The new rituals of America's holiday bazaar offered a luxuriant merger of the holy and the profane - a heady blend of fashion and faith, merchandising and gift giving, profits and sentiments. In this richly illustrated book that captures both the blessings and ballyhoo of American holiday observances from the mid-eighteenth century through the twentieth, the author offers a reassessment of the "consumer rites" that various social critics have long decried for their spiritual emptiness and banal sentimentality.
Women in rural Pennsylvania played an important role in family celebrations of Christmas and Easter during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book focuses on that role by examining their crafts related to the tree and the egg. Guided by the editors of ladies magazines, they strove for fashionable holiday decorations created from readily available materials. Through the use of photographs and patterns of period and contemporary decorations, the reader will be able to recreate similar holiday decorations. There are approximately 250 items in full color and black and white with many turn of the century photographs of early trees.
Religion and American Culture challenges the religion's traditional emphasis on older European, American, male, middle-class, Protestant, northeastern narratives concerned primarily with churches and theology. Breaking through the field with multicultural tales of Native American, African Americans and other groups that cut across boundaries of gender, class, religion and region, David Hackett's anthology offers an illuminating and comprehensive overview of the most exciting work currently underway in this field.
Included in this book are 28 traditional recipes by Chef Jeff O'Neill, showcasing Canada's multicultural heritage, plus a special section of 18 Christmas recipes from across the country, highlighting Canada's regional diversity. The origin of a Canadian Christmas is a fascinating blend of different traditions and festivities. The stories behind the celebration originate from around the world, and paint a wonderful picture of a season of joy, faith, superstition, and celebration stretching back over thousands of years.