We Are What We Celebrate

Amitai Etzioni is University Professor at the George Washington University, where he is the director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies. He is the author of numerous books, including The Monochrome Society, The Limits of Privacy, and The New Golden Rule. He is a past president of the American Sociological Association.Jared Bloom is Research Assistant at the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies, George Washington University.

• Part I IntroductionHolidays and Rituals: Neglected Seedbeds of Virtue Amitai EtzioniPart II Family BuildingWho Are We and Where Do We Come From? Rituals, Families, and Identities Elizabeth H. PleckJust for Kids: How Holidays Became Child Centered Gary CrossThis Is Our Family: Stepfamilies, Rituals, and Kinship Connections Mary F.WhitesideGathering Together: Remembering Memory through Ritual John R. GillisPart III Community BuildingThe Festival Cycle: Halloween to Easter in the Community of Middletown Theodore CaplowMainstreaming Kwanzaa Anna Day WildeVictorian Days: Performing Community through Local Festival David E. Procterpart iv Nation BuildingCan You Celebrate Dissent? Holidays and Social ProtestFrancesca PollettaThe Invention of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday Matthew DennisProclaiming Thanksgiving throughout the Land: From Local to National Holiday Diana Muir"Our Hearts Burn with Ardent Love for Two Countries": Ethnicity and Assimilation Ellen M. LitwickiAbout the Contributors Index

"[A] new and welcome framework for understanding the meanings of holidays in our multi-cultural society. Any simple explanation of even the most familiar celebrations will be challenged in reading this wide-ranging collection." - Penne L. Restad,author of Christmas in America: A History "[O]ffers an effervescent mix of sociological and historical reflections on the state of holidays and rituals in American culture." - Leigh E. Schmidt,author of Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays "[P]rovides readers with a deeper insight into the ways in which holidays have been used and misused throughout American history. We learn of how Americans come together on their special days and how those days, sometimes, reveal social strains. A necessary volume for anyone who cares about how Americans reveal community and perform civic obligation." - Gary Alan Fine,author of Difficult Reputations: Collective Memories of the Evil, Inept, and Controversial