The Oxford Companion to the Year: An Exploration of Calendar Customs and Time-Reckoning

About this book

What are the halcyon days? On what date do the dog days begin? What is Hansel Monday? How do Chinese Muslim Mesoamerican Jewish and Babylonian calendars differ from Christian calendars? The answers to these and hundreds of other intriguing questions about the way humans have marked and measured time over the millennia can be found in The Oxford Companion to the Year. The desire to set aside certain periods of time to mark their significance is a transhistorical transcultural phenomena. Virtually all cultures have marked special days or periods: the feast day of a saint the celebration of a historical event the turning of a season a period of fasting the birthday of an important historical figure. Around these days a rich body of traditions beliefs and superstitions have grown up many of them only half-remembered today. Now for the first time Bonnie Blackburn and Leofranc Holford-Strevens combine this body of knowledge with a wide-ranging survey of calendars across cultures in an authoritative and engaging one-volume reference work. The first section of The Oxford Companion to the Year is a day-by-day survey of the calendar year revealing the history literature legend and lore associated with each season month and day. The second part provides a broader study of time-reckoning: historical and modern calendars religious and civil are explained with handy tables for the conversion of dates between various systems and a helpful index to facilitate speedy reference. The Oxford Companion to the Year is a unique and uniquely delightful reference source an indispensable aid for all historians and antiquarians and a rich mine of information and inspiration for browsers.