Holiday History

A revelatory look at the tumultuous life of a jazz legend and American cultural icon “A book written as only one artist could view another, with insight and sincere compassion.” —Sandra Cisneros, best-selling author of Woman Without Shame In the first biography of Billie Holiday in more...

The festive Christmas wreath we hang on our doors today has a rich and complex history stretching back to ancient pagan traditions, long before it was adapted for Christian holidays. For early Europeans, the harsh winter season, marked by the winter solstice, was a time of fear and uncertainty. The sight of evergreens such as holly, ivy, and pine, remaining green amidst the bleak landscape was a powerful symbol of hope, life, and renewal.

In this alternately humorous and horrifying memoir, a Jewish father shleps his reluctant children around Europe on a hard-charging tour of Holocaust sites and memorials in order to impress on them the profound evil of Hitler’s war against the Jews and the importance of combatting genocide.

Inheriting a gay bar from your secretive great-uncle? Awkward. Trying to save it while catching feelings for the wrong girl? Complicated. From the author of She Drives Me Crazy comes an exuberant YA novel about queer joy, found family, and standing your ground. When eighteen-year-old Louisa Wade...

Much like The Stories Behind The Best-Loved Songs Of Christmas, The Stories Behind The Great Traditions of Christmas and More Stories Behind The Best Loved Songs of Christmas this new Collins Christmas book will fill a void in the book world. With a look at these secular classics, people who...

A fearless, revelatory collection from one of the most talked-about poets in America, whose poems have been embraced by critics and readers alike as candid, intimate, and magnetically charged (“like catching a glimpse of the full moon in the middle of the day” —Bomb) “Ecstasy is a...

An exploration of how African American innovators and artists—whose impact and financial value in American music, movies, and TV is disproportionately greater than their numbers—have fought for and often won the rights to own and benefit from their own work. When we think about the things...

Though Halloween today is largely known for its commercialized customs of costumes, candy, and carved pumpkins, its origins trace back more than 2,000 years to the Celtic festival of Samhain. Celebrated by ancient Celts in the lands that are now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the colder, darker half of the year.

Bridgerton meets Emily Henry in this fresh take on regency romance about a wallflower writing a dictionary of bawdy slang who arranges her own marriage to the ultimate instructor: the town rake. “Sexy and witty… a clever regency romance that kept me giggling.” — Joss Richard...

History is turned inside out when off-world travelers challenge Tyson Reyes and Madi Grace to a real-life game of Temporal Dilemma. Three rounds from the opponents and Hitler takes Europe, Pearl Harbor never happens, a fascist cloud hangs over the postwar United States, and CHRONOS itself is erased from existence. Now Tyson, Madi, and a team of seasoned players must make their moves - in 1930s New York. Jazz and the blues waft from Village clubs. The World’s Fair draws assassins. Madison Square Garden hosts Nazis. And the Manhattan Project never gets off the ground.

America's Favorite Holidays explores how five of America's culturally important holidays - Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving - came to be what they are today, seasonal and religious celebrations heavily influenced by modern popular culture.

'Oh, by the way, Gabe. I know what happened with Seamus! Everybody at Kiss does.' How did Mitchell know any details about my breakup? I felt my jaw tense. Why did everybody at the third most popular bar in The Village also know? Did Seamus tell them? My heart rate switched from a pulse to a...

The Waterloo Black Hawks’ first Thanksgiving game was not on the original United States Hockey League schedule in 1964/65. Nevertheless, the Black Hawks played on that holiday evening, starting a tradition which today draws thousands of Eastern Iowans to the rink each November after turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we celebrate the man who taught us how to respect others. Pairs with the story Jade's Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

An acclaimed natural history writer follows the trail of the remarkable hummingbird all over the world. Hummingbirds are a glittering, sparkling collective of over three hundred wildly variable species. For centuries, they have been revered by indigenous Americans, coveted by European collectors...

The United States is a nation that touts its diversity, but there is one tradition that all Americans love to share. Every year on the Fourth of July, Americans celebrate the founding of the nation. Independence Day is the greatest of national traditions, but much of the inherited lore that surrounds the Fourth is myth and legend, not history.

The Pilgrims' celebration of the first Thanksgiving is a keystone of America's national and spiritual identity. But is what we've been taught about them or their harvest feast what actually happened? And if not, what difference does it make? Through the captivating story of the birth of this quintessentially American holiday, veteran historian Tracy McKenzie helps us to better understand the tale of America's origins—and for Christians, to grasp the significance of this story and those like it.

There are two great misconceptions about Cinco de Mayo in the United States, despite the fact it has become one of the country’s most beloved days. The first misconception is that the date marks the Independence of Mexico, and the second is that the celebration was imported in relatively recent times by Mexican immigrants. In fact, May 5 does not mark Mexico's independence (which is celebrated on September 16) but the day of the most important battle in the history of the country, fought against the French.

How did things progress from that story in the Bible, with a Jewish girl giving birth to the Messiah of Israel in a manager in the city of Bethlehem, to the modern colossus that is the Christmas holiday? How did Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, the snow sleighs, the presents, and family reunions become the distinctive features of the holiday if none of them were there at the beginning? The answers can be attributed to a chain of events, characters, oral traditions, artistic works, and an assimilation of local folklore.

Celebrants of the first Independence Day took little time to ponder the status of equality between the races. Primarily, their attention was taken up with the overthrow of a foreign colonial power, one not accomplished through the will of an overwhelming majority. The bold move shaped by colonial legislators and promoted to the colonies by the founding fathers represented a first-of-its kind emancipation, as no European colony had so completely faced down its mother country in a test of wills.