The Stations of the Sun

A history of the ritual year in Britain From the twelve days of Christmas to the spring traditions of Valentine, Shrovetide and Easter eggs, through May Day revels and Midsumer fires, and on to the waning of te year, Harvest Home and Hallowe´en, Ronald Hutton takes us on a fascinating journey through the ritual year in Britain. His comprehensive sutdy covers all the Bristish Isles and the whole sweep of history from the earliest written recrods to the present day. Great and lesser, ancient and modern, Christian and pagan, all rituals are treated with the same attention. The result is a colourful and absorbing history in which Ronald Hutton challenges many common assumptions about the customs of the past and the festivals of the present, debunking many muths, and illuminates the history of the calendar we live by.