This book contains the proceedings from the Second International Conference of The SIEF Working Group on The Ritual Year, which took place in Gothenburg, Sweden, June 7-11, 2006. More than seventy researchers from different disciplines representing twenty countries participated. Rituals seem to be of special significance today and the main theme was Ritual Diversity. Since the conference took place in the month of June several of the papers concerned this special period of the year.

The volume is divided into seven sessions with the themes: Midsummer - Ritual Theories - The Ritual Life - Whose Rituals? - Rituals in Religious Contexts - Rituals in a Changing World - Hosts and Places for the Ritual Year Conferences. It contains forty-one papers presented under these session headings. The authors discuss a number of rituals in different times, contexts and places. They deal with changes as well as continuity and examine both religious and popular rituals.

The Institute for Language and Folklore together with The Department of Ethnology and The Department of Religious Studies at Göteborg University arranged the Second International Conference of The SIEF Working Group on The Ritual Year. SIEF is the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore.