Dinosaurs, way back, say, around the Jurassic give or take, were not known for whooping it up. Survival and eating and such were the name of the dinos' game, and pausing to acknowledge a fall celebration didn't ever fall on the giant beasts' calendars (which had to have been very, very big, like refrigerator-big, probably.)
But we humans of the modern era rather like celebrating things, and it doesn't escape our notice that the holiday that's most tied to calacas and calaveras and beautiful skeletons of all sorts -- hola, Dia de los Muertos -- would welcome animalia into the festive fold, those creatures who've crossed over but still have stories to tell.
The Natural History Museum is telling those stories, via its many dinosaur bones and full-structure skeletal figures, which makes it an ideal home to a Day of the Dead party. Nope, those rare jawbones and skulls won't get made up with traditional Dia make-up -- flowers around the eyes, and smiley teeth up the cheeks -- but visitors to the Saturday, Oct. 25 to-do can still admire their skeletal lines.
This is a bash for museum members at the Naturalist level or higher. Been thinking of joining? Yeah, this would be a great moment, because then you are a member -- bonus -- and you get to go -- bonus.
If you're not a Naturalist member of the NHM, but you still want to jamboree-it-up near all of those bones, take heart, Halloweeners: The museum throws the doors open for a daytime celebration on Sunday, Oct. 26.
You don't need to be a member, you just need to pay admission.
On the dino-y docket that day? A Halloween-themed scavenger hunt, trick-or-treating, a DJ spinning holiday-perfect tuneage, pumpkin decorating, and such.
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There are stories to learn, about all of those old bones and the colossal creatures that once roamed our planet. And you can learn from tiny creatures, too, that currently call our planet home: Spider Pavilion is still on at the Exposition Park museum.
Don't you feel like you need to pull a web or two out of your hair whenever you read the words "Spider Pavilion"? That's a good reaction, we suppose, because so few things, in this seen-it-all-done-it-all world, offer such a visceral response.
Spiders. You do provoke, in all the wonderful, spine-tingly ways. You, too, dinosaurs.
