Celebrating World Goth Day 2013

@GothDayOfficial

Happy World Goth Day folks!  Pop over to WorldGothDay.com to find out which stores are offering holiday discounts and to see if there is a WGD event happening near you.

World Goth Day is also receiving some more mainstream media acknowledgement in 2013!  My favorite of the day is from TIME.  This feature highlights some seriously beautiful photographs - contemporary and historical.  One of my major passions is black and white film photography.  Black + white film and wet plate photography have such an amazing visual essence that simply cannot be duplicated. This Lightbox feature bears testament to that. 

Darkness Visible: On World Goth Day, Photos of Romance and Shadow

CNN.com's blog GeekOut also has a pretty nice piece about the day.  It briefly highlights more serious issues the subculture faces.  In doing it so, it mentions the senseless death of Sophie Lancaster ('07) along with some more recent attacks.  In all of the cases mentions, the victims became targets for abuse because of their appearance and thier participation in the subculture.  It is nice to see a major media outlet, even if it in a blog piece, use this day to bring attention to these issues.

The dark side of World Goth Day

While you are at it, I would highly recommend taking take a moment from your day to visit the Sophie Lancaster Foundation website.  Find out more about their mission, see what they are doing, and find out how you can get involved.

From their website:

A note from Sophie's mum, Sylvia

Since Sophie's death on August 24th 2007, following the horrific attack on her and her partner Rob in Stubbeylee Park, Bacup, Lancashire, we had lots of kind offers of support and donations. Sophie and Rob dressed in their unique way, expressing their individuality as creative artistic people. After consulting family and friends, we felt that a charity should be set up in Sophie's name. The charity, known as The Sophie Lancaster Foundation, will focus on creating respect for and understanding of subcultures in our communities. It will also work in conjunction with politicians and police forces to ensure individuals who are part of subcultures are protected by the law. Enjoy the website. And please get in touch with us if you have any messages, feedback or questions.

More than anything though, remember to celebrate! Go out. Have fun. Get your goth on.