Book Review: Celebrating Life Customs around the World: From Baby Showers to Funerals

Abstract

Victoria Williams is a freelance writer and editor with a PhD focused on European fairy tales and folklore. She has edited a variety of ABC-CLIO reference works on folklore-related topics, ranging from sports and games to human sacrifice. Celebrating Life Customs around the World: From Baby Showers to Funerals is the most recent of Williams’ works. The three-volume set consists of more than three hundred entries on rituals and customs related to specific life stages. The entries in this set are organized first by life stage, then alphabetically. The first volume focuses on birth and childhood, the second on adolescence and early adulthood, and the third on aging and death. Each entry ends with internal cross-references and further reading and includes inset color photographs, selected bibliography, and comprehensive index.