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

Ronald Hutton traces the ritual year across Britain, following seasonal customs from the earliest written records to the present day. The book considers how communities marked Christmas and the Twelve Days, Valentine, Shrovetide, Easter, May Day, Midsummer, Harvest Home and Halloween, while examining the changing meanings attached to these occasions.

Alongside the calendar festivals, Hutton discusses mummers’ plays, sword dances, hobby-horses, horn dances, misrule and other ceremonial traditions. Christian and pagan practices are treated within the same historical framework, which also considers the work of earlier folklorists and challenges assumptions about supposedly ancient survivals. The result is a detailed account of how ritual, seasonal life and communal identity developed throughout the British Isles.