Seasonal Holidays and History

• Eyewitness to History.com: History Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It
• "American National Holidays," History Now: American History Online, No. 4 (June 2005)
• History of the Holidays (History Channel.com)
• Holidays history (The Holiday Spot)
• Holidays on the Net
• New Year's Eve in Times Square
• Jewish Holidays (Virtual Jerusalem)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on the Net (Holidays on the Net)
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Man Who Stirred the Nation (Black Voices)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. (Stanford University/Martin Luther King, Jr. Center)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. (Seattle Times)
• Ebenezer Baptist Church (Atlanta, GA)
• Black History Month
• Groundhog Day Celebration Home Page
• Groundhog Day, February 2, Punxsutawney Phil
• History of Groundhog Day
• Punxsutawney Phil's Story
• The History of Valentine's Day (History Channel)
• valentine.com
• History of Chocolate (Godiva)
• Presidents' Day Internet Resources
• Mardi Gras History (neworleans.com)
• Mardi Gras Central (Crescent City Connection)
• A Mardi Gras Guide for New Orleans
• New Orleans Mardi Gras (ICorp)
• A History of New Orleans (L. Madere)
• Essays on New Orleans' History (New Orleans Online)
• Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans
• Women's History Month Resources
• Clover all Over (Invision)
• Passover on the Net (The Jewish Post of New York/Studio Melizo)
• The Easter Page
• April Fool's Day
• Historical Overview of The Kentucky Derby
• Kentucky Derby 123 (Virtual Churchill)
• A History of Mother's Day (H. Hildebrand, Houston Chronicle)
• Origins of Decoration/Memorial Day, 1868
• Memorial Day, May 30
• National Cemetery Administration (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
• Obtaining Military Records & Medals (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)
• Access to Military Service and Pension Records (U.S. National Archives)
• Order Forms for Military Service and Family History Records (U.S. National Archives)
• Indy Racing League (Indianapolis 500 Memorial Day race)
• Women in Science and Technology Month (June)
• Happy Birthday America! (Fourth of July)
• Le Tour de France (June-July every year)
• Olympic Games sites on the Internet
• 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games
• Halloween Fun (UNICEF)
• The Costume Site: Online Costuming Sources for Historical, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Costumers (Milieux)
• Guy Fawkes Day, November 5
• The American Thanksgiving Tradition (Plimoth Plantation)
• Thanksgiving and Plymouth, Massachusetts
• Celebrating December Around the World (Education World)
• Chanukah: The Festival of Light (Virtual Jerusalem)
• Hanukkah: Festival of Lights
• Happy Chanukah (New York Jewish Post)
• Jewish Holy Days Gallery (Ben Uri Gallery, London, UK)
• Christmas and Hannukah sites
• Christmas on the Web
• WorldView Christmas (Christmas Traditions Around the World)
• Christmas Traditions in France and Canada
• Christmas.com
• Kwanzaa Information Center (MelaNet)
• It's Kwanzaa Time
• Kwanzaa (festivals.com)

For further information about the history and impact of holidays in the United States, see the following works:

• Anthony F. Aveni. The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Holidays. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 224 pp. ISBN # 0-19-515024-4 $25.00

• Jack Santino. All Around the Year: Holidays and Celebrations in American Life. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.

• Ellen M. Litwicki. America's Public Holidays, 1865-1920. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000. 288 pp. ISBN # 1-56098-863-0. $39.95 cloth and ISBN # 1-58834-061-9 $21.95 paperback.

• Leigh Eric Schmidt. Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995. Details the economic implications of Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and Mother's Day.

• Mike Cronin and Daryl Adair. The Wearing of the Green: A History of St. Patrick's Day. New York: Routledge, 2002. 360 pp. ISBN # 0-415- 18004-X. $25.00.

• Reid Mitchell. All on a Mardi Gras Day: Episodes in the History of New Orleans Carnival. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. 264 pp. ISBN # 0-674-01622-X. $29.95.

• Len Travers. Celebrating the Fourth. Amherst, MA: University of Massachsuetts Press, 1977.

• Nicholas Rogers. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. 208 pp. ISBN # 0-19-514691-3. $23.00.

• William B. Waits. The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving. New York: New York University Press, 1992. 272 pp. ISBN # 0-8147-9251-0.

• Penne L. Restad. Christmas in America: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 256 pp. ISBN #0-19-509300-3. $25.00.

• Stephen Nissenbaum. The Battle for Christmas. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

• Dorothy Winbush Riley. The Complete Kwanzaa: Celebrating Our Cultural Harvest. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. $23.00. Discusses the background and practice of this cultural celebration, founded in 1966, which takes place from December 26 to January 1.

• Gerald Early. "Dreaming of a Black Christmas: Kwanzaa bestows the gifts of therapy." Harper's Magazine, January 1997, pp. 55-61.

  Last updated on March 7, 2006

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