Description
Book SynopsisEvery year we celebrate a cycle of seasonal holidays. The ancient Greeks called this cycle “The Dance of the Horae,” after the mythical divinities who represented the seasons. What myths sit at the foundation of our own holiday celebrations? This interdisciplinary book explores the myths and symbols that underlie our major seasonal holidays and give them their meaning. Arthur George also shows how America’s own mythmaking has shaped some holidays. This mythological approach reveals how and why holidays arose in the first place, how and why they have changed over the centuries, why they have remained important, and finally how we can celebrate them today in a more meaningful manner that can enrich our lives and better our society. George devotes particular attention to the depth psychological aspects of holidays and their corresponding myths, as well as to the insights of modern biblical scholarship for key holidays such as Easter and Christmas.
Table of Contents1. Introduction: Why We Have Holidays
The Nature of Things Holy, Including Days
The Sociology and Psychology of Holidays
Archetypal Ritual Traditions in Holidays
The Development of Holidays in Pre-Literate Societies
The Inevitable Fate of Holidays and their Rituals
The Structure of the Course of the Seasons and this Book
2. New Year’s Day: Creation Renewed and Re-lived
How Do We Decide When Is the New Year?
A Holiday of Recreation, Beginnings and Endings, and Transformations
Archetypal Patterns in New Year’s Rituals
New Year’s Festivals in the Ancient World
Babylon
Egypt
Israel
Greece
Rome
New Year’s in Post-Roman Europe
Celtic New Year’s
The Effect of Christianization
New Year’s in the British Isles
Our New Year’s
3. Groundhog Day: Prophecy, Rebirth, and Renewal
Why We Celebrate February 2nd
The Original Meaning of the Holiday, and How it Came
to Involve a Groundhog
Mythology in the Film Groundhog Day
4. Valentine’s Day: How a Saint Became Eros
Eros in Ancient Greece
Saint Valentine
Myth and Valentine’s Day Traditions
5. Unmasking Carnival
Holidays of Dissolution and Reversal
Ancient Greek Origins of Carnival
Roman Origins of Carnival
The Origins of Carnival Time in the Roman Calendar
The Late-February Roman Festivals
Carnival in Europe and America
6. Easter and Our Resurrection
Myth and the Holiday’s Name
Myth and the Original Eastertime Events
Myth and the Passion of Christ
Myth and the Resurrection of Christ
The Evolution of Easter in Europe
Easter Symbols
Easter Eggs
The Easter Bunny
Easter Lamb
New Clothes and Easter Bonnets
Easter Lilies
The Modern Mytho-Psychological Meaning of the Resurrection
The Evolution of the God Image
Christ as a Symbol of the Self, and the Meaning of the Incarnation
Christ’s Suffering
The Meaning of the Resurrection
7. May Day: Beltane Fires and the May Queen-Goddess
The Goddess Mythology Behind May Day
The Bonfire Rituals of May Eve
May Day Maypole and Related Rituals
The Return of the Goddess of May Day
8. National Myth: The Goddess Behind America’s Independence Day
The Goddess Liberty in Ancient Times
Mythical Women and Goddesses as Allegorical Personifications of Nations
The Female Personification of America
9. Halloween: Eve of Transformation
Greek and Roman Precedents
The Anthesteria in Athens
Roman Festivals of the Dead
Enter Christianity
All Saints’ Day
All Souls’ Day
The Celtic Mythical Background: Samhain
The Otherworld and its Inhabitants
Samhain Myths and Rituals
The Transformational Communal Bonfire
Feasting on Transformational Food
Intoxication on Transformational Drink
Divination
Recitations of Poems and Reenactments of Myths
No Apparent Focus on Dead Ancestors
The Emergence of Halloween in Europe
Halloween in North America
Halloween and Transformation
10. Thanksgiving: Our American Mythmaking in Action
The Nature of the “First Thanksgiving”
The Development of Thanksgiving Before 1841
Thanksgiving after the Rediscovery of the “First Thanksgiving”
Thanksgiving and Historical Myth
11. Christmas: New Beginnings and the Birth of the Divine Child-Hero
Is the Christmas Story a Myth?
Why Were the Infancy Myths Created?
The Underlying Archetypal Mythology of the Christmas Story
Jesus and the “Birth of the Hero” Motif
The Nature and Role of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’s Birth
The Virginal Conception
The Star
The Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Flight to Egypt
The Shepherds and Angelic Choir in Luke
The Ending of Luke’s Infancy Story
Why Did Christians Decide to Celebrate Jesus’s Birth with a Holiday, and to Hold it on December 25?
How Christmas Mythology and Ritual Evolved to What We Have Today
The Mythmaking behind St. Nicholas and Santa Claus
The Evolution of Christmas Myth and Ritual in Europe and the United States
Psychological and Modern Spiritual Aspects of the Christmas Myth
The Holy Spirit and the Incarnation
The Birth of Jesus and the Divine Child Motif
