- Halloween or All Hallows Eve can be just another marketing event for retailers of lollies, costumes and decorations or it can be an opportunity to learn about history, religion and other cultures. One or all of the sources below either inform or expand on the Halloween tradition.
- Halloween – Ghoulish or Godly?
- Celebrating Halloween and All Saints Day – Franciscan Media
- Inviting the Souls of the Dead | Huffington Post
- The skeleton dance - Eureka Street
- Friar Greg’s Take on Halloween – Franciscan Media
- Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed – Franciscan Media
Halloween
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Subscribing to the religion feed of Huffington Post is one means of scanning the digital environment and saves a bit of time. It offers a quick look at what's happening ion the world religion scene, though USA centric to a degree. It's easy enough to glance through Australian and international stories identifying content that may be useful for religion studies for high school students or teachers.
LINK for Huffington Post Religion http://www.huffingtonpost.com/religion/ It's where you can come across things like below 'Quotes by Inspiring Religious Thinkers'. They've gathered quotes from BrainyQuote.com images are from sources such as Wikimedia Commons, AP, Getty. The 'Quotes by Inspiring Religious Thinkers' might suit as a discussion starter or to prompt students having trouble finding a world religious leader to undertake a research project on for religion or social studies. Today the Catholic Church celebrates The Assumption of Mary. A range of online resources are freely available to learn and teach about this celebration. Surfing the internet can be time consuming and daunting given the thousands of options that come up in a basic search. Provided below are a few 'just in time' educational aids. These links are to trusted and authoritative sources which means they can be used with confidence. A time-saver for teachers, parents, catechists and others who wish to share the faith of the Catholic Church.
At this busy time of the year, there's always something that we need at the last minute...
The web sites noted on Christmas Webs feature many links especially suited to the Australian classroom. In Australia, celebrating Halloween continues to increase in popularity even as many brush it off as just another opportunity for retailers to market (sell) more junk --- decorations, costumes, face paint, and lollies. What is apparent is that more children are hearing about Halloween, asking their parents if they can 'do trick or treat' or raising it with teachers if the class can have a Halloween party.
Historical and religious overview is provided about Halloween (All Hallows Eve) and how it relates to both All Saints and All Souls Days at the Franciscan Media web site, Click Here to read. [NEW LINK to different source, https://www.franciscanmedia.org/halloween-and-its-christian-roots/ ] Some Saintly resources are advertised in the September 2013 Current Awareness Bulletin. Advertised resources are available for loan to schools and other bona fide patrons of the Catholic Resource Centre, Bathurst, NSW (Australia). The Centre can provide supplier/distributor information to others in Australia or check via TROVE for possible libraries near you that may hold it. P.S. Already Halloween is becoming too much so for some in Oz. Friends in Sydney with children have been celebrating with 'trick or treat' for 3 or 4 years now in their local neighbourhood. This weekend news went around that the 'neighbourhood' would not be doing Halloween due to too many from outside the immediate area coming. Apparently word got round about what good 'treats' these few streets had and last year people drove their kids to the area and dropped them off to 'trick or treat' there. Revised and updated links October 2017. Free online resources continue to increase in all areas of knowledge and study, Religious Education is no exception. The Diocese of Bathurst draft religious education program relies on many of these from YouTube clips to authoritative articles of Church teaching. These can emanate from a particular organisation such as Caritas, an education authority such as the very professionally produced RESource, an initiative of the Catholic Education Office, Melbourne, to personal blogs and publishers.
Many of the resources available from publishers' sites have specific relevance to their own published or produced resources naturally. Garratt Publishing commenced this year with a specific Religious Education outreach initiative called REmail and its second issue dealing with Mary, the Blessed Virgin is available offering ideas and activities for both Primary and Secondary grades. It's first issue dealt with Social Justice. It could be expected there is a greater chance of usefulness from the Garratt offerings because it is an Australian publisher and distributor. Resources that may be referred to have a better chance of already being within an Australian Catholic school's collection. You can opt to subscribe to REmail which means that you'll get a heads up in your in-box when a new issue is available. St Mary's Press (Winona, Minnesota) has an online resource center with multimedia offerings and worksheets, many are freely accessible for all to use while for others a log in is required. As it is a major Catholic publisher, the range of free resources is good. Click on the following links for free religious education resources. REmail Issue 2: Mary Caritas Australia Multimedia Caritas Australia Education Resources RESource, an initiative of the Catholic Education Office, Melbourne St Mary's Press Resource Center This is a competition that is truly worth promoting. The organiser's answer to 'Why make a film?' explains it best --- 'Filmmaking inspires confidence, fosters creative thinking and encourages kids to explore different methods of collaboration and group work. Plus, it's seriously fun!'.
This is a great source of Australian made short films that are flexible teaching and learning resources. The winner and finalists for past competitions are available online. For example, 'Bumper' by Ben McCarthy, is suited to the themes: gifts and talents; identity; family. It's about 'Bumper, the frog, who overlooks his disability and likes what he finds'. Start perusing and previewing these for religious education, english and more at the Trop Jr Showcase via http://www.actf.com.au/education/trop_jr/showcase Comments are welcome especially about how you think any of the past short films could be used in the Australian classroom and curriculum. Presented by the Australian Children’s television foundation, calling all budding film makers and young people with something to say in a creative way. The competition’s Trop Signature Item [TSI] is: Monster Entries open 15 August 2013 Entries close 10 October 2013. For more information, guidelines, how to enter go to http://www.actf.com.au/education/trop_jr/enter or http://tropfest.com/tropjr/enter-tropjr/ { There are two Trop Jr festivals for 2013 only; one already held in February and the upcoming one. This is due to changing the time of year when the festival takes place.} |
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