Festivals and Ceremonies
Upcoming Celebrations
- Movember and Thanksgiving
MOVEMBER
Movember New Zealand Official website
Check out some of our magazines and books on men's health:
Books on Mo's
One thousand beards : a cultural history of facial hairHair : styling, culture and fashion
THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada (2nd Monday in October) and USA (4th Thursday in November). Originally a harvest festival, there is some debate as to the start of this celebration. Some believe it can be traced to 1565 in Florida, but most celebrations are linked with the Pilgrims of Plymouth (USA), in 1621. The Pilgrims that sailed to America on the "Mayflower" stopped in Leiden in the Netherlands, and a celebration is also held there.
American Pilgrim History:
Mayflower : a voyage to warThe Mayflower miracle : the Pilgrims' own story of the founding of AmericaA land as God made it : Jamestown and the birth of AmericaThanksgiving Ideas:
The festive food of AmericaCuisine and culture : a history of food & peopleFestive fun- craft fun for festive occasionsBooks:
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A year of festivals: how to have the time of your life - In the Lonely Planet series.
- "Takes you around the world in pursuit of festivals in all their flamboyant colour and variety. Discover music, camel races, feats of endurance, manic street parties and monumental food fights. From the sublime (Venice's Carnevale or India's Krishna Janmastami) to the absurd (Finland's Wife-Carrying Championships or Australia's Beer Can Regatta), the best of the famous and little-known alike are represented here. Organized by month and week to help you to plan a great festival experience at any time of year. Country and Festival indexes allow you to also search by the destination of your next vacation, or by the name or theme of the festival you want to experience." (Library Catalogue)
Planet Party: a world of celebration- By Iain Gately.
- "'On almost any given day of every year, at some point on the globe, people will be gathering together in celebration - to stage parades, to venerate their gods, to dress up in disguise, or to strip to their skins and abandon themselves to pleasure ...' Essential reading for the travelling or armchair hedonist, Planet Party is a tour of the world's greatest festivals - a multicultural voyage of celebration across the continents and through the seasons. Its itinerary includes such famous events as the Munich Oktoberfest, Trinidad Carnival and the running of the bulls in Pamplona, and also lesser known, if equally exciting spectacles like Derbyshire's 1,000-a-side Shrovetide football match, and the Burning Man Project, a fire festival staged in a remote American desert. In addition to providing an impression of what it feels like to be at each event, Planet Party examines the history and philosophies behind them, exploring matters as diverse as ideal beauty, the Hindu concept of rebirth, and the origins of beer drinking. Stimulating and richly coloured, Planet Party is an erudite study of our love of celebration." (Amazon)
World party: the Rough guide to the world's best festivals- "There's nothing like the life-affirming buzz of a major festival, whether it's toasting the arrival of summer in Iceland, chugging beers at Munich's Oktoberfest, or joining in the orgy of beats at Ibiza's closing parties. This book is a guide to over two hundred of the greatest events on earth, and represents the culmination of years of research, travelling and party-hopping by Rough Guide authors and contributors. Armed with this book, you'll find out all you need to know before you go, and what to do while you're there, as well as the practical details that can make or break your trip.
Every country in the world has its own festivals and celebrations. They're a colourful key to unlocking local cultures and can make for a fantastic travel experience." (Amazon)
Dates and meanings of religious and other festivals: with a calendar for 1997-2001 - By John G. Walshe and Shrikala Warrier.
- "The latest edition of this resource book takes us through to the next millennium with carefully researched dates for all religious and other festivals, with new sections on national, folk and secular festivals and the origin s of major religions." (Amazon)
The Naked Man Festival, and other excuses to fly around the world - By Brian Thacker.
- "Kooky festivals of all shapes and sizes exist around the world, as illustrated by this humorous travelogue that recounts the dozen most outrageous celebrations the author discovered on his six-month, six-country adventure. In search of the most unusual and wildest festivities, the author was pelted with beans, amazed by giant snow cows, stampeded in a temple full of men wearing nothing but "nappies," befriended by alien abductees, and much more while attending a Hogmanay in Scotland, a Tomato Festival in Ripley, Tennessee, a Bean Throwing Festival in Tokyo, and a Voodoo Festival in Haiti. The side-splitting stories will inspire readers to attend/or create peculiar festivals of their own, and on a more serious note, explore and appreciate other cultures.
Brian Thacker is the author of Planes, Trains, and Elephants and Rule No. 5: No Sex on the Bus." (Amazon)
Jump up: good times throughout the seasons with celebrations from around the world - By Luisah Teish.
- "Many people are unaware of the connection between holidays and the earth-based seasonal traditions from which these special days evolved. Using myth, folklore, and poetry, this book reacquaints readers with well-known traditions. Organized by season, each section begins with a story followed by rituals that readers can enact to create their own celebrations. Ceremonies and traditions come from Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the South Pacific, from Christmas and Kwanzaa to the Ritual of the Cleansing Fire and the Building of the Autumn Equinox Altar." (Amazon)
Sacred festivals - By Jeremy Hunter.
- "Presents a journey through 20 countries and four continents chronicling the world's most culturally and spiritually rich festivals and celebrations." (Amazon)
Ceremonies & Celebrations
Festivals
General Resources:
Seasonal:
Other:
Around The World:
Weddings
The Libraries' Popular Topics: Weddings page has a wealth of ideas for both traditional and contemporary approaches to weddings.
Information on books, magazines, music, websites and more, can be found here.
Information on books, magazines, music, websites and more, can be found here.
Funerals
Wellington City Libraries has a range of information in our collection on Funerals. Please follow the links below to specific areas of interest:
Book of Interest
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Celebrating a Life - by Faith Moore.
- "Celebrating a Life provides the ideas, inspiration, and how-to advice needed for creating a meaningful memorial service. Light-hearted but sensitive, this thoughtful guide covers it all: checklists and questionnaires designed to help readers think about their preferences and articulate their wishes; advice on selecting venues, music and food; creative ideas for sharing family stories, photographs, and memorabilia; an invaluable list of memorial service dos and don'ts; and, even guidance from Peggy Post on modern-day funeral etiquette and respectfully straying from tradition. Author Faith Moore, a prominent Boston-based event planner, offers readers a fresh perspective. Her message is clear: memorial services ought to be more about celebrating a life and less about grieving a death. Whether the ceremony is elaborate or simple, religious or secular, the combination of Moore's creativity and professional insight will undoubtedly help her readers find the perfect way to pay their last respects." (Amazon)
Online Databases
Mygateway.info takes you to the online resources the libraries offer, where there is a full range of information from encyclopaedias, journals, magazines and more.
Access these databases with your library card number from any computer with an internet connection.
Use the following links for a good place to start searching for information on festivals and ceremonies:
Useful Websites
Upcoming Festivals at Eventfinder.co.nz
World Party - The Rough Guide to the world's best festivals
Contact Us
This page is written and maintained by Jessica Berg. My aim is to keep you informed about Festivals and Ceremonies and to highlight parts of the Libraries' collection which may interest you. I'd be pleased to hear from you about this page - you can email me with any feedback.
