Holiday History

Who doesn't love a holiday? With candy, hearts, gifts, and songs, our modern holiday interpretations are rather sweet and tame. This class will be anything but. 

Many holidays have gruesome beginnings or old-style practices that would shock us today.  In this class, students will be exposed to the gore, murder, mayhem, and crazy practices of the past that have led us to the sweet Easter bunny, mischievous Leprechaun, and candy-laden Halloween of today.  With reading, discussions, and recreating holidays of the past in clean versions (no martyrdom, I promise), we will together find out what is truly meant when we say, "Happy holidays."

Prerequisites: students must be able to handle conversations about murder and ritual killings, dismemberment, body snatching, slavery, and other big and unsettling issues. Students must also be able to sit, listen, and participate in discussions for the 45 minutes of this class. They also will need to communicate with respect because of the sensitivities of the topics.  There will be a research project for the end of the term in May wherein students will present the real history of a holiday of their choice.