CHRISTMAS IN RITUAL AND TRADITION, CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN* by CLEMENT A. MILES.SOURCE ... A 2018 Christmas present from Mr T.
READ FOR A CHALLENGE? ... Late in signing up this year and unable to even begin to estimate what level I'll be able to attain I'm never the less participating in this year's Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge details of which can be found here.MY THOUGHTS ... A 2012 edition of what I'm beginning to believe is the digitised copy available free from Project Gutenberg which might well account for the fact that the layout of the book was, well, shall we say, quirky; that the black & white photographs were pretty poorly reproduced so as to look more like they had been photocopied (badly at that) from another book. Other than that ...
A real gem of a read, as interesting as it is informative.
Some of them doubtlessly familiar, others not so much, still others not at all, with Part I dealing with 'The Christian Feast', Part II (the larger aspect of the book) 'Pagan Survivals' which as the title might suggests takes a look at how many pre-Christian festivals were re-dressed as Christian; section by section, chapter by chapter the author takes us through many of the rituals and traditions associated with 'Christmas', showing how it is/had been kept in various places at various times in this fascinating read that, not too dry or academic, provides much food for thought and not just for the serious students amongst us either.
* Please note I have been unable to find a link to the 2012 edition I read online. The nearest I got was a trace by the book's ISBN number (9781546660781) which resulted in this. The cover of the book was photographed by myself.
A copy is available on-line free courtesy of the Gutenberg Press. Click here to download. FGT
5 comments:
This book sounds fascinating. I love digging into the origins of traditions. I am remotely familiar with the pagan roots of Christmas, I would love to know more detail.
This does sound quite interesting. I enjoy learning about the ways the Christian celebrations built on the already established pagan festivals.
This does sound interesting and informative, Felicity.* And it's timely, too, of course. Excellent review post, as usual!
*I'm still tempted to type Tracy, from time to time.
Thanks for this interesting and informative post.
Felicity,
This sounds like a very interesting
and informative book. And I am glad
that you enjoyed it so very much. And
as always, thank you for your excellent
review.
Raven
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