American Holidays: Religion, Politics, and Ritual in American Culture
Fall 2025,
T 3:00–5:50PM
Exploring a variety of religious holidays and civic rituals in American history and culture, this class ranges from public conflicts over Christmas through the evangelical invention of Halloween Hell Houses to ongoing struggles over the Civil War’s memorialization.
This seminar examines a variety of religious holidays and civic rituals in American history and culture. Topics include: public conflicts over Christmas, modern renderings of Hanukkah, African-American emancipation celebrations, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the evangelical invention of Halloween Hell Houses, as well as Memorial Day and the ongoing contestation of the Civil War. Various interpretive approaches are explored, and the intent is to broach a wide range of questions about history and tradition, gender and race, public memory and nationalism, religion and consumer culture, through this topical focus on holidays and performance.
Course History:
Fall 2013: Taught by Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt
Fall 2022: Taught by Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt
