Collection development of non-Christian religious holiday books in elementary school libraries

While many Christian holiday books for children are widely reviewed and available from mainstream publishers, it is more difficult to find and evaluate books about non-Christian holidays. Elementary library collections may under-represent non-Christian religious books because of a lack of school library media specialists\u27 personal knowledge about non-Christian holidays. This study surveyed school library media specialists through a written questionnaire about the variety and size of their library\u27s current collection of non-fiction books about non-Christian religious holidays, and determined how school library media specialists approach collection development in this area. The sample and population consisted of 124 elementary public school librarians in Atlantic, Ocean, and Cape May Counties. Results showed that the collections of non-fiction religious holiday books were not very diverse, with more than half of the books owned reflecting Christian holidays. A large number of school library media specialists considered treatment of material and reading level as important criteria when selecting non-fiction books about religious holidays. Follett\u27s Titlewave was the most commonly used selection source for nonfiction religious holiday books, with almost 80% of respondents using it

Human Sexual Cycles are Driven by Culture and Match Collective Moods

It is a long-standing question whether human sexual and reproductive cycles are affected predominantly by biology or culture. The literature is mixed with respect to whether biological or cultural factors best explain the reproduction cycle phenomenon, with biological explanations dominating the argument. The biological hypothesis proposes that human reproductive cycles are an adaptation to the seasonal cycles caused by hemisphere positioning, while the cultural hypothesis proposes that conception dates vary mostly due to cultural factors, such as vacation schedule or religious holidays. However, for many countries, common records used to investigate these hypotheses are incomplete or unavailable, biasing existing analysis towards primarily Christian countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Here we show that interest in sex peaks sharply online during major cultural and religious celebrations, regardless of hemisphere location. This online interest, when shifted by nine months, corresponds to documented human birth cycles, even after adjusting for numerous factors such as language, season, and amount of free time due to holidays. We further show that mood, measured independently on Twitter, contains distinct collective emotions associated with those cultural celebrations, and these collective moods correlate with sex search volume outside of these holidays as well. Our results provide converging evidence that the cyclic sexual and reproductive behavior of human populations is mostly driven by culture and that this interest in sex is associated with specific emotions, characteristic of, but not limited to, major cultural and religious celebrations.Comment: Main Paper: 21 pages, 4 figures Supplementary Material: 66 pages, 15 figures, 13 table

Cultural Appropriation Of The Death Celebrations: The Case Of Halloween

Major cultural death celebrations such as Mexico’s Day of the Dead, Halloween, and All Saint’s Day in many Christian countries, all involve the remembrance of the ancestral dead in various aspects. Holiday celebrations can differ in purpose. Some focus on recommitment – aiding in socialization of society’s members, social integration, and reaffirming commitment to values. Others serve as tension management holidays, enabling celebrants to “let off steam” or “let loose.” Tension management holidays only indirectly enforce shared beliefs by offering the occasional release from conformity and behavioral norms of society (Etzioni and Bloom 2004; Durkheim 1965). Studying holidays as cultural products offers a unique perspective of society’s cultural values and enhances our understanding of consumer interpretation of foreign consumption rituals

PENENTUAN HARI LIBUR NASIONAL UMAT KRISTEN DI INDONESIA MENGGUNAKAN ALGORITMA ASTRONOMI MEEUS

Astronomically, Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. In Indonesia, Christian holidays including Easter are regulated by the Ministry of Religious Affairs based on the recommendation of Indonesian Church Union (PGI) and Bishops Conference of Indonesia (KWI). This study objective is to formulate a simple time marker by using Meeus Astronomical Algorithm to determine Christian holidays in Indonesian Gregorian calendar. Another objective is to evaluate the Christian holidays on Indonesian calendar between 1960 and 2015. Finally, this study would also provide prediction for future Christian holidays. This study finds out that the Christian holidays on Indonesian calendar are proven as methodologically accurate. It indicates that Meeus Astronomical Algorithm can produce accurate calculation for determining Christian holidays in Indonesia in the future. KEY WORDS:Meeus astronomical algorithm, christian holidays, Indonesian calendarSecara astronomis, perayaan Paskah jatuh pada hari Minggu pertama setelah bulan purnama pertama, setelah Matahari melalui Vernal Equinox. Di Indonesia tanggal libur keagamaan umat Kristen ditentukan oleh Kementerian Agama atas rekomendasi Persekutuan Gereja di Indonesia (PGI) dan Konferensi Wali Gereja Indonesia (KWI). Kajian ini bertujuan membuat program tanda waktu sederhana berdasarkan Algoritma Meeus untuk menentukan hari libur nasional umat Kristen di Indonesia pada kalender masehi, juga untuk evaluasi data hari libur umat Kristen dalam sejarah kalender Indonesia yang tercatat pada tahun 1960 hingga 2015 serta prakiraan hari libur umat Kristen di masa depan. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa tidak ditemui perbedaan pada Kalender Indonesia. Ini membuktikan bahwa hari libur umat Kristen di Indonesia tidak pernah menyimpang dari ketentuan. Dengan ini maka program Algoritma Meeus dapat direkomendasikan sebagai program tanda waktu hari libur nasional umat Kristen di Indonesia. KATA KUNCI: Algoritma astronomi meeus, hari libur Kristen, kalender nasiona

Holidays and Holy Days: The Significance of the Pagan/Christian Calendar in the French Vulgate Account of King Arthur and His Round Table

The Merlin section of the thirteenth-century Old French Vulgate Cycle focuses on Arthur’s birth and the now iconic events that accompany his divine selection and coronation as King of Britain. A close reading of this account reveals that significant story events usually coincide with religious holidays. The transition from the pagan to the Christian calendar and the symbolic impact of the calendar on the early formation of the round table in the French Vulgate Cycle has been mostly overlooked by scholars. In this paper, I address this lacuna by examining the role the calendar plays in the development of characters and events during this pivotal moment in the evolution of the Arthurian legend. For example, both Uther and Arthur have significant experiences involving their crowns during Whitsuntide, which suggests that this holiday held important cultural implications. I pay close attention to the significance of the holidays that were transitioning from Pagan rituals to Christian rites for the Vulgate writers’ thirteenth-century courtly audience. I argue that the frequent and consistent intersection of crucial story events and major holidays reveals the considerable role that cultural practices had on the early development of Arthurian legend

Адаптивні властивості традиційної календарної обрядовості білорусів та її сучасна роль

In the article on the basis of litererature and field researches features of adaptation of traditional calendar ceremonialism of Byelorussians, formations of calendar system of holidays in present conditions are investigated. Main directions of transformation of traditional holidays of a national calendar during the modern period, leaders from which are synthesis of natural-economic and Christian calendars, the activization of regional (local) subcultures, change of ethnocultural dominants in folkloreethnographic holidays are revealed and interpreted.У артыкуле на базе літаратурных і экспедыцыйнных палявых матэрыялаў даследаваны асаблівасці адаптацыі традыцыйнай каляндарной абраднасці белорусаў, формавання каляндарнай сістэмы святаў у сучасных умовах. Праяўлены і інтэрпрэтаваны асноўныя накірункі трансформацыі традыцыйных святаў народнага календара ў сучасны перыяд, вядучымі з якіх з’яўляюцца сінтэз прыродна-гаспадарчага і хрысціянскага календароў, актывізацыя рэгіянальных/ лакальных субкультур, змена этнакультурных дамінантаў у фальклорна-этнаграфічных святах і інш

Holidays and the economic growth of nations

There is sufficient microeconomic evidence that holidays are important to economic life. Is there similar support at the macroeconomic level? This exploratory paper uses a simple approach to assess the impacts of holidays on the economic growth rates of 182 nations in 2002. It finds that the human development level has a larger effect on economic growth rate than holidays. At the aggregate level holidays affect economic growth positively, but in a statistically insignificant way. For example, increasing by one day the number of holidays per year adds 0.30% to annual growth rate. Unlike non-religious holidays, religious holidays, whether Christian or non-Christian, affect economic growth negatively. The results are meaningful, yet statistically weak insofar as their explanatory power is only around 20%. They suggest that instruments for holidays, such as total sales revenue during holidays ,or something, other than the number of holidays, may be better explanatory variables. One can think of any number of fixes like remodeling the problem, choosing alternative estimators and/or functional forms. For now, those fixes belong to future efforts

Holidays and the economic growth of nations

There is sufficient microeconomic evidence that holidays are important to economic life. Is there similar support at the macroeconomic level? This exploratory paper uses a simple approach to assess the impacts of holidays on the economic growth rates of 182 nations in 2002. It finds that the human development level has a larger effect on economic growth rate than holidays. At the aggregate level holidays affect economic growth positively, but in a statistically insignificant way. For example, increasing by one day the number of holidays per year adds 0.30% to annual growth rate. Unlike non-religious holidays, religious holidays, whether Christian or non-Christian, affect economic growth negatively. The results are meaningful, yet statistically weak insofar as their explanatory power is only around 20%. They suggest that instruments for holidays, such as total sales revenue during holidays ,or something, other than the number of holidays, may be better explanatory variables. One can think of any number of fixes like remodeling the problem, choosing alternative estimators and/or functional forms. For now, those fixes belong to future efforts

Метеорологічні прикмети в народному календарі українців Полісся

This article gives readers some ideas about Ukrainian folk calendar comparatively to official and church calendars. The role weather in the life of agriculture men through the historical times is being described in it's connection to the biggest Christian holidays. The most important points of folk calendar are being described saporatly

Christmas and Christmastide in the Interpretation of Russian Writers of the XVIII-XX Centuries

New Year and Christmas are widely represented in the world literature. This is both a special genre – a touching Christmas story, which is created according to certain canons, and traditional "scary stories", the action of which is timed to the "magic" period of Christmas, and a description of the merry winter holidays in Soviet children’s literature, where the New year replaced the rejected Christmas. But not only the storytellers and romantics have left a description of the holidays they loved since childhood on the pages of their literary works. Poets, satirists, and realists had a hand here — quite a wide range of authors who described both the New Year holiday itself and everything that happens on Christmas. The ceremonies that took place during these holidays have a deep meaning. Therefore, the main purpose of the work is a comparative analysis of the descriptions of the Nativity and the Nativity in the works of Russian writers of the XVIII-XX centuries. The author analyses the works of Gogol, Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Starygin, Zaitsev. It has been established that Russian literature actively turned to Christmas and Christmas holidays in the nineteenth century. For example, A.S. Pushkin in "Eugene Onegin" contrasted Christmas with Christmas. It has been established that Christian motifs dominate heathenism in Gogol’s Christmas tale. In the novel “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy was able to subtly determine the originality of the Christmas mood in the popular understanding. It has been determined that in classical works of Russian literature, Christmas time appears more often than Christmas: the pagan tradition is “one's own”, original, unlike Christian. The atmosphere is transmitted by writers more attractively than the Christmas one