Showing titles in Customs & Traditions

Taking listeners beyond the stereotypical images of windmills, clogs, and tulips, this audio guide helps visitors understand the complex layers of identity in this small, densely populated country on Europe's northwestern seaboard. With roots as a maritime nation that built a network for transportation, defense, and trade, the Netherlands of today is still a prime economic hub of Europe. The Netherlands is also famous for its liberal attitudes, recently challenged by high levels of immigration, and is home to an intelligent, cosmopolitan, enterprising, tolerant, and modest people.

Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs, and behavior in the Philippines, ensuring that you arrive aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. This concise guide tells you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. The inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

The mythologies of the world are collective cultural dreams, and as such should be analyzed first from cultural perspectives. How do myths of the ancient Egyptians or Greeks, for instance, reflect the realities of the Egyptian and Greek cultures? When compared, however, mythologies reveal certain universal themes or motifs that point to larger trans-cultural issues such as the place of the human species in creation or the nature of deity as a concept. World Mythology: A Very Short Introduction is organized around the universal motifs.

¿Existió de verdad el rey Arturo? ¿Y Robin Hood? ¿El Sagrado Grial es un cáliz u otra cosa? ¿Es cierto que en Europa millones de personas ardieron en la hoguera condenadas por brujería? Estos son tan solo algunos de los temas que Dorsey Armstrong, estudiosa del Medioevo, desarrolla sobre esas historias medievales de las que tanto hablamos. Algunas contienen retazos de verdad, otras son completamente inventadas, pero todas ellas nos cuentan cosas sobre el pasado.

Bring ancient methods of healing and magic into the modern world with this impressive book on Ozark folk magic. Providing lore, herbs, magical alignments, verbal charms, and more, folk healer Brandon Weston sheds light on the region's secretive culture and tells you how to heal both yourself and others.

Robert Bly, poet, storyteller, and mythologist, takes us on an imaginative and disturbing journey in this live recording. Disturbing both personally and historically, the commentary reminds us that the mythology we have inherited is often defective.

Have you ever heard about the old mother of waters? How about Miao Shan? Or the medicine god?The Chinese had so many gods that it's probably a huge task to remember or memorize them all. For almost everything, there was either a god or a goddess. But a simple list of all the gods wouldn’t suffice to satisfy your appetite for the mystery of religious history in this massive country. So, to help you enjoy this audiobook, the intricate stories of betrayal, supernatural powers, love, and hatred are described in detail in this guide.

The nice thing about African mythology is that it is rooted in such ancient traditions. And although the west hasn’t fully embraced some of these interesting stories, they have been told by many and remembered by some, enough to write them down and discover what they are all about. Different regions have different traditions, of course, and you’ll learn more about many of them in this book.

It's the dead of night; you are fast asleep. Suddenly, you are wide awake but unable to move. Hunched over you in the shadows is an eight- or nine-foot-tall gaunt entity with spider-thin limbs, dressed in an old-style black suit, its pale face missing eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. You finally manage to cry out. The monstrous thing disappears as suddenly as it appeared. You just had a terrifying encounter with the Slenderman. Who - or what - is the Slenderman? His existence began on the Internet, but he didn't stay online.

Lycanthropy is a mysterious subject. Ancient belief in lycanthropy was widespread, and it still exists in parts of the world. Literatures all over the world have tales of men changing to animals. Werewolves are often related to demons, devils, blood, and the full moon. In this classic study, Sabine Baring-Gould, a historian, examines the literature about this matter from a serious perspective.

The Age of Chivalry, Thomas Bulfinch's masterpiece of history and fable, recounts the tales of Arthur and the Round Table. A timeless tale retold by Milton, Dryden, Tennyson, and writers before and since, the Arthurian legend has metamorphosed from medieval Welsh texts to the French vernacular romances of Chrétien de Troyes; from obscure histories of a British chieftain of the fifth or sixth century, to a chronicle of the advent of Christendom in the British Isles.

Professional storytellers Richard Alan Young and Judy Dockrey Young have scoured the Ozarks to collect these authentic stories. They spin culturally reflective stories that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike, including: "The Meanest Man in Arkansaw", "The Cold-Trailing Coon Dog", "The Blacksnake Lie", "What the Doctor Said", "The 17-Minute Sermon", and more.

Prima della scienza, prima della religione, c'è il mito. Modo ingenuo - ci dicono -, modo fantasioso, spregiudicato e prescientifico, di spiegare l'origine delle cose e degli uomini, gli usi i costumi e le leggi. Filologia, etnografia, antropologia hanno lacerato il velo del mito, evidenziandone le radici ideologiche, il retroterra di superstizione e di magia. Ma i miti, così dissezionati, ci vengono restituiti alla stregua di freddi reperti anatomici, buoni tuttalpiù per qualche museo.

Of all the ghostly lore that bedevils Sleepy Hollow, none terrifies more than the galloping spectre of the Headless Horseman. Few in the haunted glen are as susceptible to the tale as the superstitious schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane. But just as bewitching - and bewildering - to Ichabod is the elusive coquette Katrina Van Tassel. On an autumn eve, Ichabod attends a harvest party, hoping to finally woo the woman of his dreams. Instead, he sees his worst nightmares come true.

Throughout time, felines have played a sacred role in human life. In this guidebook, you’ll meet 51 feline deities and demons from four geographical families around the world—Africa, Americas, Asia, and Europe. You’ll also encounter mystical cats who work in alliance with human gods and goddesses. The feline entities come from different eras and cultures all over the world. Some are angelic guides, and others, demonic adversaries, but all play a role in our understanding of feline deities and why they became to be so.

Weihnachten ist das größte jährliche Ereignis auf dem Planeten, eine Zeit des Fröhlichseins, der Übertreibung, des Friedens, des guten Willens und des gelegentlichen Familienstreits. Dieses Fest ist so bequem und vertraut wie ein altes Paar Schuhe und dabei trotzdem noch immer voller Glitzer und Aufregung. Aber was wissen wir wirklich darüber? Weihnachten ist vollgestopft mit Traditionen und Ritualen, die die meisten von uns schon unser ganzes Leben lang beobachten, ohne die geringste Ahnung zu haben, woher sie kommen.

Each story reveals a piece of the Japanese spirit and shows how these old tales still matter today. Download this audiobook to start your journey into the world of Japanese folktales and legends!

"Among the many whose labour has been laid under contribution in the following pages there are certain scholars whose published work, or personal advice, has been specially illuminating, and to whom specific acknowledgment is therefore due. Like many others I owe to Sir J. G. Frazer the initial inspiration which set me, as I may truly say, on the road to the Grail Castle."

When philosopher and traveller Will Buckingham’s partner died, he sought solace in throwing open the door to new people. Now, as we reflect on our experiences of the pandemic and its enforced separations, and as global migration figures ever more prominently in our collective future, Buckingham brings together insights from philosophy, anthropology, history and literature to explore how our traditions of meeting the other can mitigate the issues of our time.

Drawing on the expertise of twenty-four renowned practitioners, this book features contemporary folk traditions from all over North America. Diverse as the landscapes they thrive on, these authentic practices will expand your worldview and inspire you to enrich your own spirituality. Explore the history, tools, and spiritual beliefs of many different paths of folk magic from Mexico, the United States, and Canada.