Top of page
Posted by: Erin Allen
The holidays are full of many traditions – gift giving, sending cards, singing and cooking. Also kissing. If ever there was a time to pucker up, it’s in December, underneath the mistletoe. Washington Irving wrote in the 1800s, “young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under [mistletoe], plucking each time a berry from …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Books, Collections, Folksonomies, History, LC Web site, Music
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Levon Avdoyan, Armenian and Georgian area specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division.) When I began working at the Library of Congress in 1992 as the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist to the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division, it was as if …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, Exhibitions, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
A camel walked into Mount Vernon … sounds like the beginning of a rather offbeat joke. However, such is not the case. On Dec. 29, 1787, our nation’s soon-to-be first president, at home on his estate in Alexandria, Virginia, played host to a rather exotic animal for the holidays. I first heard this story from …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, Events, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
On this day in 1843, the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” was published. Or was it? While researching the book’s history, there appeared to be some confusion over the date, with many sources confirming December 19 as the day Ebenezer Scrooge was introduced to readers. As it turns out, the book has a somewhat …
Posted in: Books, Collections, History, Today in History
Posted by: Erin Allen
“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…” reads the familiar poem most of us know as “The Night Before Christmas.” However, that title isn’t really correct. Clement Moore first penned the poem in 1822, under the title “A Visit From St. Nicholas.” Moore is thought …
Posted in: Collections, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Monica Mohindra of the Veterans History Project.) “Home for the holidays”- it’s a sentiment that can cut across lines we might otherwise let divide us. For my dad, it means a longing to be with his family in India for Diwali, a multi-day festival of light that falls …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Collections, Folksonomies, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post from Francisco Macias of the Law Library of Congress.) Each winter we see poinsettias adorning houses, shopping centers and offices throughout the country. But a little known fact is that the poinsettia is an endemic flora of Mexico. In Spanish it is often called “flor de nochebuena” or simply …
Posted in: Collections, Education, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
In 2014, December 16 marked the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by the forces of Antiochus IV. Also referred to as the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah recalls the event. According to the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, at the re-dedication …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Collections, Education, Events, Exhibitions, History, Jewish American History, LC Web site, Manuscripts, Today in History
Posted by: Erin Allen
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I spent several days in New York City. The holiday season was in full swing, with several holiday markets around town, lights and decorations adorning street posts and buildings and Rockefeller Center nearly completely decked out – the Christmas tree was up but not yet decorated. One of the things I …
Posted in: Collections, Exhibitions, History, LC Web site, Manuscripts, Photos