Your October Digital Smorgasbord

This week, I present a Halloween themed selection of interesting pieces from across the interwebs.

♢ Have Yourself a Hallowed Halloween
Not everyone is up for the traditional Halloween. Clarissa Moll suggest some ways we can turn Halloween into a positive thing, even for those who don't enjoy the dark parts of the celebration, whatever your reason may be.

This year marks our second Halloween since my husband died, and my children and I don’t find Halloween decor funny anymore. Cemeteries don’t mean spooky in our house; they mean sorrow. Puns about death fall flat. Over the last year, our family has struggled to navigate a death-averse society, and death-obsessed Halloween feels painfully insensitive. Instinctually, I want to opt out. ...

While Halloween has largely been overtaken by inflatable witches and gory masks, the holiday’s roots in Christian belief and practice offer easy opportunities to engage my children in conversations about death and grief and Christian hope. So, while everything in me wants to ditch Halloween in favor of more innocuous harvest parties and trunk-or-treats, I’m choosing to creatively opt in.

♢ Sent into the Harvest
David Mathis asks several questions to help us think about making a missional Halloween.

What if a crisp October wind blew through “the way we’ve always done things” at Halloween? What if the Spirit stirred in us a new perspective on October 31? What if dads led their households in a fresh approach to Halloween as Christians on mission?

♢ Not the Halloween You Remember
Joe Carter explores the ways Halloween celebrations have evolved, especially in recent years.

Halloween today reflects various cultural forces that have influenced its meaning and practice over time. For some, it remains a fun celebration of creativity and community; for others, it’s a more complicated symbol, one that reflects our culture’s ongoing fascination with death, darkness, and the supernatural. These shifting meanings highlight both the fluidity of cultural practices and the persistent human desire for what Halloween represents—connection, identity, and transcendence.

♢ Netflix Accidentally Made a Christian Movie (video)
This movie made quite a splash last year, and you may see these characters among your trick or treaters. It's a good example of how the light can, sometimes accidentally, shine in the darkness.


Image via Pixabay