The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain [Hardcover]

Ronald Hutton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 1996

From the twelve days of Christmas to the Spring traditions of Valentine, Shrovetide, and Easter eggs, through May Day revels and Midsummer fires, and on to the waning of the year, Harvest Home, and Hallowe'en; Ronald Hutton takes us on a fascinating journey through the ritual year in Britain.
His comprehensive study covers all the British Isles and the whole sweep of history from the earliest written records to the present day. Great and lesser, ancient and modern, Christian and pagan, all rituals are treated with the same attention. The result is a colorful and absorbing history in which Ronald Hutton challenges many common assumptions about the customs of the past and the festivals of the present debunking many myths and illuminates the history of the calendar we live by.
Stations of the Sun is the first complete scholarly work to cover the full span of British rituals, challenging the work of specialists from the late Victorian period onwards, reworking our picture of the field thoroughly, and raising issues for historians of every period.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`absorbing study' Lorn Macintyre, Glasgow Herald

`a scholarly work meticulously detailing the origins of every traditional holiday or ritual day in Britain's history ... As a historical document, the breadth of detail is gripping, but as an exploration of British beliefs over the millenium about to go forever, it's unmissable.' Flic Everett, Manchester Evening News

`an exhaustive account of the traditions and rituals practised in the British Isles from time immemorial to the present' Sybil Owen, Oxford Times

`Hutton's work is not dry as dust but of a piece with the ever-expanding purlieux of social history. He does not string out paragraphs upon a modicum of fact. Each is fertile with detail ... this elegantly produced and remarkably cheap volume will find an honoured place in the library of every self-respecting New Age caravan that is Glastonbury-bound, and, elsewhere, it will command a sale well beyond the run-up to Christmas once known as Advent.' Christopher Hawtree, The Independent

`The Stations of the Sun is a dedicated, meticulous piece of research.' David Woodthorpe, Plymouth Evening Herald

`scholarly, readable history of British seasonal rituals ... Hutton takes us informatively through "the ritual year", from Christmas to Bonfire Night' Paul Barker, The Times

`he seeks ... to put the record straight rather than stir up controversy for the sake of it, and has prduced a work that will be respected for its temperate argument and its prodigious research. From Christmas to Hallowe'en, there is barely a ritual or a custom that escapes his eye in the most detailed book of its kind ever written.' Henry Hardcastle, Evergeen, Autumn 1996

`he seeks ... to put the record straight rather than stir up controversy for the sake of it, and has prduced a work that will be respected for its temperate argument and its prodigious research. From Christmas to Hallowe'en, there is barely a ritual or a custom that escapes his eye in the most detailed book of its kind ever written.' Henry Hardcastle, Evergreen, Autumn 1996

`Ronald Hutton's splendid new book is a comprehensive history of the customs and beliefs whch constitute the ritual year in Britain ... it is a tour de force, from one of the livelist and most wide-ranging of practising English historians ... this is a historical encyclopaedia, unfailingly informative and stimulating; but a connecting thread does run through the book ... This is a welcome work of demystification, bringing the cold light of historical inquiry to bear on an area which has been surrounded with a good deal of pseudo-science and sheer gobbledegook ... this is a marvellously detailed exploration of a now familiar historical pheomenon, the invention of "tradition" ... unfailingly stimulating, learned and engaging book, which places a relatively neglected aspect of English social history firmly on the map.' Times Literary Supplement

`uncovers a mass of fascinating material about rites and festivals, showing how irrepressible such inventiveness remains in spite of globalised entertainment' Marina Warner, Independent on Sunday

About the Author

Ronald Hutton is Reader in British History at the University of Bristol. He is the author of The Rise and Fall of Merry England (OUP 1994) and Charles II: King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (OUP, 1989; OPB,1991).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 22, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198205708
• ISBN-13: 978-0198205708
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,198,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Source, August 18, 2000

By 

Doreen Taylor - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (Paperback)

This book is a great source for information about British customs and lore. Hutton is excited about his subject and holds it in deep regard all the wile telling us the way it really is. I learned a lot from this book and I consider it essential reading for everyone (especially neo-pagans) who has an interest in this subject.

As a neo-pagan I wouldn't want to have this vast subject explained to me in one sentence - I want examples as to why a certain custom or seasonal festival is important/necessary in the wheel of the year. Ialso want sources states because if someone were to just say to me "Everything you have read about British seasonal customs is wrong" I would say, "Prove it". Hutton indeed takes the time to prove his arguments.

Hutton isn't against neo-pagans, but he is _for_ scholarship.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Brick of Scholarship, November 19, 2005

By 

Brian P. Hudson "Writer@Large" (Dearborn, MI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stations of the Sun (Paperback)

This book is not for a casual reader. It is, instead, a compendium of primary source information for those curious about the calendar year in Britain. It's fascinating scholarship and absolutely authoratative in its research, but not for "just reading"! At some points, the paragraphs are so thick with citations and details that my eyes began to gloss. In general, though, the prose remains readable, even when detailing minutia.

I do want to address one criticism from an earlier reviewer, who said this about the book:

"Hutton debunks everything he presents; after a while it kind of got on my nerves. Virtually every description and explanation is followed by some sort of 'but this probably didn't happen' or 'this probably wasn't really the way it was' disclaimer. fter reading several chapters, my attitude morphed into 'why are you wasting my time telling me about stuff that didn't happen? Can't you tell me about anything that probably DID happen?'"

I'm not sure if this reviewer and I were reading the same book. Yes, Hutton debunks many myths surrounding these customs, but to say that he provides no information on what DID happen, or how it happened, is bunk. The book is thick with information, a real brick of scholarship. There are ten chapters alone on the evidence of various Christmas and New years traditions!

Those with a serious interest in the development of many Western calendar customs in Britain (many of which are also the ultimate root of our American traditions) should definitely add this boo to their collections.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of the holiday year in Britain., October 29, 1999

By 

Mark Howells (Puyallup, Washington State, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (Paperback)

A very scholarly work on the origins and customs surrounding the holidays in Britain. This book has been a bit of a "tough read" for me as I worked through the dry parts of interest to folklorists between the parts of interest to genealogists. As an American, I had to have Guy Fawkes Night explained to me. As a genealogist working with UK sources, it's nice to understand what Rogationtide and Candlemas are, for instance.

In general, the book attempts to overturn the classical folklorist mistakes in the sources and symbolism of holidays dating back to Sir James Frazer's Golden Bough. Not every custom and tradition is a direct descendant of Celtic religious rites. Humanity has been very adaptable to inventing new "old traditions" as the need arises and our earlier ancestors where just as good at fulfilling these needs as were the Victorians who invented our concept of an "old fashioned Christmas".