Holidays Around the World. 6th Ed. By Pearline Jaikumar. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, 2018. 1,528 pages. Acid-free $177 (ISBN 978-0-7808-1619-0). Ebook Available (978-0-7808-1658-9), call for pricing.

“I have to write a paper about Eka Dasa Rudra,” explains the teenager who has just approached the reference desk. Talk about out-of-the-blue! “How did you hear about him?,” you ask. The student explains that it isn’t a person. It’s a gathering involving hundreds of thousands of people that happens once every hundred years. Where? The student doesn’t know. “Oh wait, someplace where there are volcanoes,” she says. With a little more prompting, the student explains that the gathering takes place at a temple which was built on the slopes of a volcano. Luckily, you had the foresight to order a copy of Holidays Around the World because your hunch that this just might be some obscure religious observance proves correct. With the help of this directory, researchers may obtain interesting background information about all kinds of holidays and celebrations in all fifty US states and in more than 100 countries. Each entry provides information on that holiday’s origins and cultural or religious context, as well as a brief list of organizations to contact for further information.

There is a comparable directory, Holiday Symbols and Customs (Omnigraphics, 2009), which covers fewer holidays but provides more depth. It’s also a more readable source with headings as well as key words in bold type. In terms of organization, the user will find the same indexes and appendixes in both sources. The subject index is divided into subsections. For example, if I wanted to learn about Judaism, I could use the religion subcategory, where I would find four holidays associated with the Jewish faith. Using the chronological index, you can get some idea of what to do on your vacation. For example, I see that there is a film festival going on in Atlanta during April. Flipping to the appendix for tourism information sources, I now have the contact information for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. That’s all well and good, but most of us would go online first, turning to a printed directory for tourism information second.

This directory is a recommended reference source for public and academic libraries, wherever people are interested in learning about different cultures, despite the fact that the appendixes could have been omitted without any great loss.—Dana M. Lucisano, Reference Librarian, Silas Bronson Library, Waterbury, Connecticut