Bookshelf

One of my favorite parts of creating art is diving down rabbit-holes of research: about the historical development of the liturgical calendar, the folklore & plantlore entwined with its celebrations, and the spiritual reflections on what these heritage traditions mean to us in our modern lives.

I’ve gathered a growing library of reference materials over the years, and I hope that some of these books will be helpful jumping-off points for your own exploration!

If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, a wonderful way to get to experience the historical liturgical calendar is to visit Camlann Medieval Village – a living history museum portraying rural England in 1376, featuring monthly feasts and festivals that follow the Medieval liturgical calendar.

Liturgical Calendar

• A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz

• All Year Round by Ann Druitt, Christine Fynes-Clinton, & Marije Rowling

• Book of Common Prayer

• The Catholic Yearbook: Comprehending, the Circle of the Seasons and Key to the Calendar and Almanac by Thomas Forster

• Cooking for Christ by Florence Berger

• The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain: An Encyclopaedia of Living Traditions by Charles Kightly

• The English Festivals by Laurence Whistler

• The English Year by Steve Roud

• The Every-Day Book by William Hone

• Festivals Family and Food by Diana Carey & Judy Large

• Holidays and Holy Nights by Christopher Hill

• The Liturgical Year: Its History & its meaning after the reform of the liturgy by Adolf Adam

• The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life by Sr. Joan Chittister

• Living the Christian Year by Steven Gross

• A Medieval Life by Judith Bennett

• Origins of the Liturgical Year by Thomas Talley

• The Oxford Companion to the Year by Bonnie Blackburn & Leofranc Holford-Strevens

• Rural Life Prayer Book

• Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year by Malcom Guite

• The Story of the Christian Year by Richard M. Nardone

• The Symbols of the Church by Maurice Dilasser

• To Dance With God by Gertrud Mueller Nelson

Another great way to experience the history of the liturgical calendar is through the BBC series Tudor Monastery Farm, in which historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold turn the clock back 500 years to the early Tudor period to become tenant farmers on monastery land. The liturgical calendar was seamlessly woven into daily life at this time, and the BBC series beautifully illustrates that.

Liturgical Plantlore & Folklore

• A Contemplation Upon Flowers: Garden Plants in Myth & Literature by Bobby J. Ward

• The Botanical Bible: Plants, Flowers, Art, Recipes & Other Home Remedies by Sonya Patel Ellis

• The Complete Language of Flowers by Theresa Dietz

• Floriography by Jessica Roux

• Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees by Ernst & Johanna Lehner

• The Forest in Folkore and Mythology by Alexander Porteous

• A Handbook of Native American Herbs by Alma Hutchens

• Ireland's Wild Plants: Myths, Legends and Folklore by Niall Mac Coitir

• Legends & Lore of Texas Wildflowers by Elizabeth Silverthorne

• A Modern Herbal by Mrs. M. Grieve

• Nature and Its Symbols by Lucia Impelluso

• Oxford Dictionary of Plant-Lore by Roy Vickery

• Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics by Richard Folkard

• Plant Lore & Legend by Ruth Binney

• Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context by Karen Louise Jolly

• Signs & Symbols in Christian Art by George Ferguson