Oh, the Humanities! is continuing the INDSUTRY NEWS section of the newsletter, but wanted to present the info outside the small margins of the email window. The list of news items is curated by OTH editors to reflect topics of the day that are of interest to the OTH audience.
In a seasonally-favored edition of Industry News, Cambridge University Press has dusted off its famous “Christmas Book” limited editions and digitized them; the University of Louisville’s library has put together some books and movie suggestions for Kwanzaa; a new photo-essay scopes out eleven ancient sites around the world that are aligned to the winter solstice; Iceland gets very bookish in the run up to Christmas Eve, much to the relief of its publishing industry, and the Library of Congress digs into the true story of the Hanukkah dreidel.
Kwanzaa Resources
The William F. Ekstrom Library at the University of Louisville has put together a collection of suggested books and films that showcase the seven principles of Kwanzaa:
[From University of Louisville Libraries]
https://library.louisville.edu/ekstrom/holiday_collections/kwanzaa
The Truth Behind the Dreidel
The Library of Congress digs into the origin of and stories told about the Hanukkah dreidel, the spinning top traditionally associated with the holiday, and explicates the true history of the toy.
[From Library of Congress Folklife Today blog]
Cambridge “Christmas Books”
Cambridge University Press has digitized its “Christmas Books’–limited edition volumes that were produced as Christmas gifts for ‘friends in printing and publishing’ between 1930 and 1973:
[From Cambridge News]
Winter Solstice Sites
The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, falling on December 21st or 22nd, has been a significant time of year in many prehistoric cultures. It marks the symbolic death and rebirth of the Sun since the gradual waning of daylight hours is reversed and days begin to grow longer. These eleven ancient sites are aligned with the sun on the winter solstice and were likely used by our ancestors for rituals to celebrate the midwinter festival.
[From Business Insider]
https://www.businessinsider.com/winter-solstice-sun-aligned-ancient-sites-2022-12?r=US&IR=T
Readin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Iceland’s traditional “Christmas book flood” is a large component of the publishing industry in that highly-literate nation.
[From Smithsonian Magazine]
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/icelands-christmas-book-flood-is-a-force-of-nature-180981293/