Halloween Redux!

We're in strange times, my friends, and who is better prepared to cope with the odd and unusual than fans of Halloween? No one, I say. The stars have aligned to bring you three ways to celebrate the spooky this week.

Today, March 31st, has been designated as Quarantine-O-Ween by the Halloween community. To join in the fun and relieve some stress put on a costume, pull out some spooky decorations, carve a pumpkin (or what ever fruit or vegetable you have in the house), watch a scary movie, eat candy, and post it all on Instagram with the hashtag #quarantineoween. I can't wait to see what everyone gets up to today.

(And don't forget that some call April 1st April Ghouls Day.)

In addition, there are two great shopping opportunities this week. The first I want to mention is Artists in Alliance II. This is a virtual gathering of spooky artists and vendors that are offering special discounts in their shops from March 30th to the evening of April 5th. Many of the shops are offering 20% discounts! This is also happening through Instagram and you can check out the artists by following #artistsinalliance.

The biggest event, and the one I'm most interested in, is the virtual recreation of the Salem Daughters of Darkness Fest that was supposed to take place in Salem, MA this Friday through Sunday. I and my girlfriends, including Miranda at Spooky Little Halloween, had rented an airbnb for the weekend and were planning to shop the market, attend live events, and generally party like it was Halloween. Unfortunately, those plans came to a screeching halt a few weeks ago, but the producers of the festival persevered and have turned the weekend into a virtual event. I'm sad that we're not all meeting up in Salem, but this is a nice consolation.

Here's the event line-up so far (Eastern Standard Time for all):

• Friday at 9PM a live streaming Q & A event with Lindsay Hearts and the Foxblood Shop
• Saturday at 11AM a live yoga session with Black Widow Yoga (includes metal music)
• Saturday at 8PM a live storytelling session with Old Growth Alchemy
• Sunday at 8PM a live discussion with FunDead Publications about writing & publishing horror

In addition to all that, most of the artists that were going to be selling their wares at the market in Salem are refreshing their online shops beginning this Friday and offering some special deals. A portion of the profits from the Daughters of Darkness festival were going to Healing Abuse Working For Change (HAWC), a domestic violence nonprofit, and some of the vendors are giving a portion of their sales back to HAWC. If you feel inclined, a small donation would benefit that organization that was planning on getting a check from the festival and has now lost out on that income. 

Find out all the details of this year's Daughters of Darkness Fest on their website or use the Instagram hashtag #VirtualDODFest. 

Prepare yourself for a wild and witchy week!