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Archive: April 2020 (3 Posts)

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Stories from the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic from Ethnographic Collections

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

The Library of Congress collections contain stories of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic as told by ordinary people, documented by folklorists, linguists, and others as they collected personal histories and folklore. Several of these are available online and a selection will be presented here, with links at the end under “Resources” where more can be found. …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Songs for the Easter Season: Polyphonic Singing from the Republic of Georgia

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Georgian polyphonic singing has a rich and ancient past. It predates Christianity and its pre-Christian roots are alive today in secular songs such as lullabies, harvest, hunting, and wedding songs. The Christian songs survived a dark time while Georgia was part of the Soviet Union, as the tradition was banned from 1921 to 1990. Monks …