rites and ceremonies

Photographs, illustrations, paintings, and text help describe what life was like for the samurai and shoguns of Japan from A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1700.

Explores initiation rites, wedding feasts, harvest celebrations, religious rituals, and many other customs used around the world to mark all kinds of special occasions.

Looks at how maturation from childhood to adulthood is confirmed and celebrated through rituals, religious ceremonies, and other traditions in societies around the world.

The people of a village perform their annual lottery, with startling consequences for the recipient of the one paper with the black spot. Includes background information about the story and the author.

Reporter Carl Streator teams up with real estate broker Helen Hoover Boyle in an attempt to find and destroy all copies of the anthology "Poems and Rhymes Around the World, " which contains an African lullaby Streator believes has the power to kill when spoken or thought, and is apparently the cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

A foundling, no longer able to endure the abuse of the villagers, leaves at age fifteen and is drawn to three mysterious strangers who help her discover her true self and where her destiny lies.

Amarlai, a boy from Ghana, helps his family prepare for his new baby cousin's naming ceremony.

Discusses the ceremonies of six major religions through which young people become adult members of these faiths.

Shows what Chrisitans, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs do when a child is born into their society. Topics discussed are: How each religion celebrates birth. How the baby's name is chosen. What kinds of prayers are said. What special ceremonies are held.

Describes rituals and sacrifices practiced by different cultures throughout history, such as mummification, Chinese foot binding, fire walking, and others.