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Following the scope of the first two editions (1993 and 1998), the third covers "holidays with a sacred component that celebrate, commemorate, or honor people, places, events, and concepts important to a specific religious community." Included are the world's major faiths and other smaller faith communities that were chosen for their historical and current cultural impact in the U.S. Religious authorities and members of various religious communities contributed to this handbook in the writing and editing of chapters.

The book is divided into three parts. Part 1, "The History of Calendars," is broken into four chapters that provide information on the development of calendars as well as other methods of timekeeping, such as water clocks and pendulums. "Calendars and Holidays for Religious Groups" comprises part 2 and is the major section of the handbook. The addition of over 100 new entries means that more than 550 religious holidays are listed, beginning with those that originated in the Middle East (Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, and Baha'i) and moving eastward around the globe.

Each chapter on a religion or religious group begins with an overview of the religion. A second essay covers specific issues that relate to the religion and its sacred calendar. The last section of each chapter is a chronological listing of holidays and a brief description of each. Each chapter also contains a table that lists each holiday alphabetically.

Part 3 contains appendixes and indexes. The appendixes include Internet and organizational sources for more information, a bibliography, and a five-year chronological list of holidays for 2004 to 2008 based on the Gregorian calendar. There are three indexes: a "Holiday Index," a "Calendar Index," and a master index of personal names, concepts, key terms, holidays, organizations, events, and other significant terms.

All types of libraries would find this a good source of basic information about religions and their holidays. RBB
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