"Popular entertainments, like all other aspects of popular culture, are windows into the attitudes and values of the people who participate in them. They both reflect and affect society as they celebrate an aspect of life.".

"Such celebrations are a text which provide the four births necessary for our full development - the anthropological concept of being "thrice born" (first into our culture, then into another culture we study, then back into our culture with new insights about both cultures) and finally a fourth birth into freedom from the grip of the two - and other - societies.".

"The 15 essays in this collection, contributed by some of the world's leading scholars, demonstrate various aspects of celebrations of cultures and the importance they have in those cultures. They are especially significant because they are international and comparative, contemporary and historical." "In sum, they present a fascinating and significant picture and summing up of many chapters of the world at play and celebration."--BOOK JACKET.