Berry Thankful
Posted by: Meg Nicholas
The American Folklife Center shares recipes, songs, and photographs that celebrate the fruit of the season: cranberries.
Posted in: Collection Highlight, Foodways, Thanksgiving
Category: Holidays
The American Folklife Center at Family Day
Posted by: Meg Nicholas
The American Folklife Center took part in the Library's Halloween-themed Family Day in October. In addition to showcasing a few items from the archive, AFC staff led visitors in an activity (making paper fortune-tellers) and encouraged participation in an engagement question around cryptids, ghost stories and urban legends.
Posted in: AFC Events, Halloween, La Llorona, Legends
Scary Stories for Halloween 2024 on the Folklife Today Podcast
Posted by: Stephen Winick
We're back with another episode of the Folklife Today podcast! In this latest Halloween episode, John Fenn and I continue our discussion with Hanna Salmon about the new Research Guide "Folktales and Oral Storytelling: Resources in the American Folklife Center Collections." Then we introduce some of our favorite spooky stories: the ghost legend "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" as told by students Marty Weathers and Bill Henry of Georgia; the witch story "Skin, Don't You Know Me" as told by master storyteller J. D. Suggs of Mississippi and later Michigan; and the truly spooky tale of "The Two White Horses," told by the great Connie Regan-Blake, a leading Appalachian storyteller who has lived in Tennessee and North Carolina among other places. Of course, in addition to some chat about the tales, the episode showcases the stories themselves. This blog post shows you how to find the podcast and gives you some additional background on the stories and storytellers. So prepare for a scare and give us a listen!
Posted in: Día de los Muertos, Halloween, Halloween Stories, Legends, Podcasts
VHP’s Newest Online Exhibit: In Memoriam
Posted by: Megan Harris
Today, the Veterans History Project (VHP) launches a new online exhibit titled “In Memoriam: Honoring the Fallen,” featuring the stories of 15 servicemembers who died during their time in the military. For many, Memorial Day may feel like nothing more than a day off from work, a holiday that serves to mark the start of …
Posted in: Afghanistan War, Impact of Service, Iraq War, Korean War, Memorial Day, Oral History, Serving: Our Voices, Veterans History Project, Vietnam War, World War I, World War II
Happy Holidays! AFC’s 2023 Literary Ball Mummers Play Video
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Happy holidays from the American Folklife Center! Watch a video of the AFC Mummers performing our 2023 mummers play! Then you can read the play, see the pictures, and even read the annotations if you’re interested in the history of holiday customs. This year’s play is called “Artificial Intelligence Meets Natural Stupidity: A Literary Ball Mumming.” When Artificial Intelligence tries to make writers obsolete, can St. George Eliot, Sherlock Holmes and Enola Holmes save the day? Find out in this play set at the North Pole Library Literary Ball, which includes wassailing carols and dancing to traditional tunes as well! Mummers plays are short plays which were traditionally performed in Britain, Ireland, colonial America and the West Indies at holiday time. Mummers went from house to house and pub to pub, collecting food, drink and small change as a reward for their entertainment. The American Folklife Center’s archive boasts a large collections of British mummers play texts in its James Madison Carpenter Collection.
Posted in: christmas, Drama, Folk Drama, Holidays, Mumming
The Green Man and Calendar Customs
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This is an entry in our occasional series on the Green Man, a figure from traditional folk culture. Among the traditional meanings shared by the figures of the Foliate Head and the Wild Man or Green Man seems to have been that humanity, like vegetation, must follow and adapt to the changing seasons. This traditional meaning could well have given rise to a connection between the Green Man and calendar customs, which goes back to some of the earliest appearances of the figure. In this post we’ll look more closely at the Green Man as an element of seasonal celebration.
Graphics for Halloween and Dia de Muertos
Posted by: Stephen Winick
In this post, we're providing a Blast from Holidays Past, featuring graphic art that we used in the Halloween and Dia de Muertos exhibit LOC Halloween: Chambers of Mystery. As part of that exhibit, which occurred here at the Library of Congress back in 2017, we presented some spooky covers from the Brazilian chapbook genre known as literatura de cordel, as well as some posters created by Library of Congress artist Joon Yi. See these beautiful examples of graphic arts here in the blog, then follow the link to our updated resource guide to Halloween and Dia de Muertos!
Posted in: Día de los Muertos, Día de Muertos, Halloween
Photos for Dia de los Muertos Newly Online
Posted by: Stephen Winick
For Dia de los Muertos 2023, we thought we'd add some never-before-seen photos to the blog of a classic Dia de los Muertos celebration 24 years ago. These photos were submitted to the American Folklife Center as part of Local Legacies, a collection project undertaken by the American Folklife Center in the late 1990s to help celebrate the Library's Bicentennial in 2000. Members of Congress participated in identifying and documenting traditions. Representative Barbara Lee's team submitted the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival from the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California. Project documentation in the collection included nine 8 x 10 color photographs, which we're reproducing in this blog.
Posted in: Día de los Muertos, Día de Muertos, Halloween
Groundhog Day on the Folklife Today Podcast!
Posted by: Stephen Winick
In this podcast episode, John Fenn, Michelle Stefano, and Stephen Winick discuss Groundhog Day traditions. Drawing on the research of Don Yoder, they discuss the history and folklore of the holiday, including groundhog traditions among the Pennsylvania Dutch, weather proverbs, and even cooking and eating groundhogs! There are even four groundhog songs! Find the link to the podcast in this blog post!
Posted in: Groundhog Day, Podcasts