British Humanist Association Family Network
Links   Home

On Thursday 12th February 2004 my daughters Sophie (age 10) and Isobel (age 4) held a party to celebrate the 195th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.

Darwin Day as a celebration for Humanists first started to gain momentum in the USA over a decade ago, with continental Europe not far behind. The British Humanist Association marked it for the first time last year (2003) with a lecture. The International Humanist and Ethical Union has been sceptical about the adoption of "our own equivalent of saints' days", but I think IHEU will eventually accept what the early Christians (with their appropriation of Easter and Yule!) obviously knew: that a good way to spread the message is by partying.

Last year also, Sophie held a party for a few schoolfriends. She had learnt about Darwin from the Great Britons series on television and had backed him enthusiastically in the contest to be named the Greatest Briton of all. Her party was a low key affair, not least because her mother was still recovering from a nasty bout of the 'flu.

With little sister Isobel now at school, their joint party this year was bigger and better! The activities and general logistics were meticulously planned by Sophie over the preceding few weeks. Mum was responsible for the catering. Dad did a school pick-up for some of the older children and, with the help of two other parents, helped to keep the thing under control.

A drink and some Cadbury's animal biscuits were available upon arrival. The nature theme continued with a game in which the children took it in turns to act as an animal whilst the others had to try and guess what it was. The second game was a variant on the traditional 'bran tub' in which the children had to feel in a box of paper shreddings for one of many small plastic toy animals. They then had to try to identify it before pulling it out for everyone to see.

Then came tea. Pizza and garlic bread proved popular as ever. The centrepiece was a Tesco chocolate caterpillar cake.

After tea we put on the 'Party Pops' tape (obtained from the Party Pieces mail order company several years ago) which includes many songs with actions such as 'Superman' and 'Simple Simon Says' along with disco favourites such as 'Waterloo' and 'Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini'. One number was used as a musical quiz. Dad stopped the music every so often and asked a question. There were different questions for the 'infants' and 'juniors'. Many treat packs of sweeties were won as prizes.

Parents had been invited to come between 6 and 7pm and stay for 'a glass or wine or Ame (non-alcoholic)'. We had found a brand of wine named 'Evolution' for the occasion (South African, white and red, imported by Western Wines) but there were disappointingly few takers. Many had to 'rush off' and others simply had not read the invitation properly! New ideas do take a while to take root.

It is clear that Sophie has embraced Darwin Day so enthusiastically not just because of her admiration for Charles Darwin but because it gives Humanist children a celebration to offer to others. The children present were not all Humanists: there was a Quaker and a Hindu as well as junior members of several local churches. In a multicultural town such as Loughborough it is not only the traditional Christian festivials which are part of the children's social experience but events such as Diwali and the Chinese New Year. Humanism does not appear to be in the school curriculum in Leicestershire, at least not up to Year 5, and it is hard for a young child to bear the full burden of explaining her lifestance to classmates. But everybody understands a party.

We did take some photographs to illustrate this piece but they all turned out terrible, so it had to be a library picture of the birthday boy himself!