The Mythology of America's Seasonal Holidays: The Dance of the Horae

ISBN-13: 9783030469153 / Angielski / Miękka / 2020 / 316 str.

Arthur George

Opis

Every year we celebrate a cycle of seasonal holidays. 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.

Spis treści

1.      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

O autorze

Arthur George is a mythologist, cultural historian, and author who writes, teaches, blogs, and lectures about mythology, why it is important in our modern world, and how it can enrich our lives and better our society. He previously published the award-winning book The Mythology of Eden (2014).

Blurb

Every 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.