Introduction

Since prehistory, festivals and rituals have marked the progress of the year. Their value was recognised during the French and Russian revolutions as well as in Francoist and post-Francoist Spain and communist and post-communist Eastern Europe. This is the second of two seminars in which we will examine the development of these festivals and rituals. We will divide into two groups: one group will focus on festivals and rituals from May to July and one group will focus on festivals and rituals from August to October.

Seminar Question

Compare and contrast the development of festivals and rituals between May and October across Europe and the British Isles.

Required Reading

• Hutton, Ronald, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in BritainLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 2001) [Each of you should read the Preface and the chapters for the months your group is studying]
• Each of you should read two articles or book chapters from the Further Reading. These should focus on festivals and rituals between May and October in countries other than England.

Further Reading

Bennett, Margaret, ed., Scottish Customs: From the Cradle to the GraveLink opens in a new window (Edinburgh, 1992)

Billington, Sandra, ‘The Midsummer Solstice As It Was, Or Was Not, Observed in Pagan Germany, Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon EnglandLink opens in a new window’, Folklore 119/1 (2008), 41–57

Brand, John, Observations on Popular Antiquities: Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions, ed. Henry Ellis, 2 vols (London, 1813), Vol. 1Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window.

Camporesi, Piero, The Magic Harvest: Food, Folklore and SocietyLink opens in a new window, trans. Joan Krakover Hall (Cambridge, 1993)

Carbon, Jan-Mathieu, 'Ritual Cycles: Calendars and Festivals', in The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek ReligionLink opens in a new window, ed. Esther Eidinow, and Julia Kindt (Oxford, 2015), 537-50.

Čaval, Saša, ‘Locating the Festival, Positioning the Feast: Natural and Calendar Festivals in Medieval SloveniaLink opens in a new window’, World Archaeology 50/2 (2018), 300-22.

Conze, Linda, ‘Filling the Frame: Photography of May Day Crowds during the Early Nazi EraLink opens in a new window’, Journal of Modern European History 16/4 2018), 463–86.

Cressy, David, Bonfires and Bells: National Memory and the Protestant Calendar in Elizabethan and Stuart EnglandLink opens in a new window (London, 1989)

Evans, E. Estyn, Irish Folk WaysLink opens in a new window (1957; rept. New York, 2000)

Fabbrini, Marco, ‘The Festival of St John: Norm and Change in Civitella Roveto in Abruzzo (Italy)Link opens in a new window’, Folklore 120/2 (2009), 157–75.

Ginzburg, Carlo, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenturiesLink opens in a new window, trans. John and Anne Tedeschi (Baltimore, 1992)

Håland, Evy Johanne, Greek Festivals, Modern and Ancient. A Comparison of Female and Male ValuesLink opens in a new window (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2017)

Hannant, Sara, Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids: A Journey Through the English Ritual YearLink opens in a new window (London, 2011)

Harris, Max, Carnival and Other Christian Festivals: Folk Theology and Folk PerformanceLink opens in a new window (Austin, TX, 2003)

Hiiemäe, Mall, ‘Some Historical Layers in the Customs of St. Lawrence's DayLink opens in a new window’, Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore 3 (1997), 60-74

Hiiemäe, Mall, ‘Some Possible Origins of St. George's Day Customs and BeliefsLink opens in a new window', Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore 1 (1996), 9-25

Hole, Christina, A Dictionary of British Folk CustomsLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 1995)

Hutton, Ronald, ‘Modern Pagan Festivals: A Study in the Nature of TraditionLink opens in a new window’, Folklore 119/3, (2008), 251-273

Kingshill, Sophia, and Jennifer Westwood, The Fabled Coast: Legends and Traditions from Around the Shores of Britain and IrelandLink opens in a new window (London, 2014)

Knab, Sophie Hodorowicz, Polish Customs, Traditions and FolkloreLink opens in a new window, rev. ed (New York, 1996)

Langeslag, P. S., Seasons in the Literatures of the Medieval NorthLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2015)

Lindahl, Carl, John McNamara and John Lindow, eds, Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and CustomsLink opens in a new window, 2 vols (Oxford, 2000)

Lyle, Emily, ‘The Celtic Seasonal Festivals in the Light of Recent Approaches to the Indo-European Ritual YearLink opens in a new window’, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 23 (2003), 184-99

MacNeill, Máire, ‘Ritual Horse-Bathing at Harvest TimeLink opens in a new window’, Béaloideas 56 (1988), 93–96.

McCluskey, S.C., ‘The Mid-Quarter Days and the Historical Survival of British Folk AstronomyLink opens in a new window’, Journal for the History of Astronomy 20(13) (1989) 1-19

Mills, David, Recycling the Cycle: The City of Chester and Its Whitsun PlaysLink opens in a new window (Toronto, 1998)

Muir, Edward, Ritual in Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2005)

Murgoci, Agnes, ‘The "Cununa": A Transilvanian Harvest FestivalLink opens in a new window’, Folklore 40/3 (1929), 245–61

Noyes, Dorothy, Fire in the Plaça: Catalan Festival Politics After Franco (Philadelphia, 2003)

O’Hare, Patricia, ‘St. John's Eve Traditions in County Kerry, c. 1850-1950Link opens in a new window’, Béaloideas 76 (2008), 23–88.

Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí, The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopaedia of Myth, Legend and RomanceLink opens in a new window (Woodbridge, 2006)

Orme, Nicholas, Going to Church in Medieval EnglandLink opens in a new window (New Haven, 2021)

Ovid, FastiLink opens in a new window, ed. and trans. Anne Wiseman and Peter Wiseman (Oxford, 2011)

Owen, Trefor M., Welsh Folk Customs (Cardiff, 1959)

Ozouf, Mona, Festivals and the French Revolution, trans. Alan Sheridan (Cambridge, Mass., 1988)

Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic: Sixteenth-Century Ethnographic Accounts of Baltic PaganismLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, ed. Francis Young (Leeds, 2022)

Parker, Eleanor, Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon YearLink opens in a new window (London, 2022)

Robertson, Noel, Festivals and Legends: The Formation of Greek Cities in the Light of Public Ritual (Toronto, 1992)

Roud, Steve, The English Year: A Month-by-Month Guide to the Nation's Customs and Festivals, from May Day to Mischief Night (Harmondsworth, 2008)

Ruiz, Teofilo F., A King Travels: Festive Traditions in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain (Princeton, NJ, 2012)

Šaknys, Žilvytis Bernardas, 'The Urban Ritual Year. Religion, Ethnicity and Ideology', in Balkan and Baltic States in United EuropeLink opens in a new window, ed. Ekaterina Anastasova, Svetoslava Toncheva (Sofia, 2018), pp. 164-77.

Šaknys, Žilvytis, ‘National and Confessional Features of Festivals and Holidays: Structure of the Ritual Year in Modern Lithuania and Bulgaria’, Yearbook of Balkan and Baltic Studies 4 (2021), 199-222

Salve, Kristi, ‘Fisherman's Work and the Sea in the Livonian Folk Calendar’, Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore 1 (1996), 26-50

Salzman, Michele Renee, 'Structuring Time: Festivals, Holidays and the Calendar', in The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome, ed. Paul Erdkamp (Cambridge, 2013), 478-96

Sedakova, Irina Aleksandrovna, ‘Restructuring of the Ritual Year in Post-Socialist Countries’, Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore 47 (2011), 181-84 [You should read two articles or book chapters plus this article]

Senn, Harry, ‘Romanian Werewolves: Seasons, Ritual, Cycles’ Folklore 93/2 (1982), 206–15.

Shusterman, Noah, Religion and the Politics of Time: Holidays in France from Louis XIV through Napoleon (Washington, DC, 2010)

Simpson, Jacqueline, and Steve Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore (Oxford, 2003)

Smith, Kate, ‘Change, Continuity and Contradictions in May Day Celebrations in NorthamptonshireLink opens in a new window’, Folklore 119/2 (2008), 142–59

Von Geldern, James, Bolshevik Festivals, 1917-1920 (Berkeley, 1993)

Warner, Elizabeth A, ‘Russian Peasant Beliefs Concerning the Unclean Dead and Drought, Within the Context of the Agricultural YearLink opens in a new window’, Folklore 122/2 (2011), 155–75

Westwood, Jennifer, and Jacqueline Simpson, The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys (Harmondsworth, 2005)

Westwood, Jennifer, and Sophia Kingshill, The Lore of Scotland: A Guide to Scottish Legends (London, 2009)

Williams-Davies, J., ‘“A Time to Sow and a Time to Reap”: The Welsh Farmer’s Calendar’, Folklore 94/2 (1983), 229–34

Electronic Resources

Ben Edge, Frontline Folklore: A Journey Through the Ritual yearLink opens in a new window (2024)