Darwin Day is coming! It’s not too early to start planning how you are going to celebrate! This year’s Darwin Day Celebration is special, indeed, as it marks both the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin Of Species. If you are ever going to celebrate Darwin Day, this coming year will be the time to do it.

The first Darwin Day Celebration (DDC), held in 1995 at Stanford University, featured a lecture by Dr. Donald Johanson, the man who discovered the famous fossil of Australopithecus afarensis, nicknamed “Lucy.” Since then, DDC has grown into a celebration of science and humanity, commemorating the contributions of scientific pioneers like Darwin to our understanding and appreciation of the world around us. The event is now held annually on Darwin’s birthday, February 12th.

The Darwin Day Celebration is celebrated by individuals and organizations around the world, and has yielded an ever-diversifying selection of ideas for commemorating the father of evolutionary theory. One of the most popular events is to host a public lecture on a subject related to Darwin or evolutionary theory, such as the history of Darwin’s work, the relationship of religion and science, evolutionary psychology, or the Creationism controversy. If you’re having trouble finding speakers for your event, check the SSA’s Speaker’s Bureau.

 

Another popular option to mark Darwin Day is to hold a public screening and discussion of a film, such as Inherit the Wind, Flock of Dodos, Penn & Teller - Bullsh*t!, or even Planet of the Apes. Similarly, Darwin’s hometown of Shrewsbury, England, will be presenting a live performance of Inherit the Wind as part of their month-long festivities. Another creative option with less need for rehearsal or organization is a Darwin Day costume party, featuring Darwin impersonators, ape suits, finches, dodos, or any other evolution-themed outfits your guests can think of. For balance’s sake, don’t forget the Ben Steins and scary fundamentalist preachers!

A tradition dating from 1989 and maintained by the Eastern Diversity Museum is the annual “Phylum Feast,” which is a potluck dinner that celebrates biodiversity by gathering together foods from as many different classes or phyla as possible. While we doubt that you will be as successful as the Museum in finding “salvaged Minke whale meat,” there are plenty of other delicious species in the class Mammalia (and kingdom Plantae, for that matter!). For more information about the Phylum Feast, check out the Museum’s page on the event.

The Secular Student Alliance is pleased to note that this year’s international Darwin Day celebration is being coordinated by our partner, the Institute for Humanist Studies. In the coming months, IHS is planning on revamping the old Darwin Day website in order to make finding and registering an event near you easier. IHS also anticipates adding several new features to the site, including a place to post photos from past events as well as a forum for sharing your own Youtube videos. Make sure to check the official Darwin Day website regularly to see these updates as they progress. For more information, visit the IHS website.

This article was written by Brendan Dieffenbach. Brendan Dieffenbach is a student intern at the Secular Student Alliance in Albany, NY. He is double-majoring in English and sociology at Kenyon College in Ohio, and will be spending the '08-'09 school year studying at the University of Exeter, England, where he will be harassing his fellow ex-pats to cast their absentee ballots in a timely fashion. He is passionate about politics, and hopes to make a lifetime career out of activism.