If you’re in Annapolis on Saturday, should you celebrate Kunta Kinte or the Day of the Dead? The answer is both. The twin festivals are two of seven great things to do in Annapolis through Nov. 1.
Worst mom ever
7:30 Friday, 3 p.m. Sunday
Annapolis Opera is bringing the most famous aria to Maryland Hall with its season-opening performance of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” Everyone has heard this song, even if they don’t know what it is. Hearing the menacing staccatos of “Der Hölle Rache” (Hell’s Fury) is a definitive opera experience. Coloratura soprano Emily Misch plays the Queen, urging her daughter to commit murder in an adventure story about a prince and a bird catcher in search of love. $28-$100, plus fees.
Tim Burton romance
6:30 p.m. Friday
Bring your family, chairs, blankets and snacks for the final outdoor movie of this year’s Summer Drive-In Movies Under the Stars organized by the merchant’s group, SoFo Annapolis. Tim Burton’s stop-animation “Corpse Bride” tells the tale of a young groom who suddenly finds himself dead and married on the eve of his wedding. Free, but reservations requested.
Rain delay
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday
Stormy weather led to the 33rd Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival being called off last month, but the forecast for the rescheduled date is sunny and warm. African American and Caribbean cultures are at the center of this celebration at City Dock, specifically the story of “Roots: The Saga of An American Family” by Alex Haley. In the author’s telling, his ancestor Kunta Kinte arrived in Annapolis aboard a slave ship on Sept. 29, 1767. One of the three stages is near the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial. Free admission.
Día de los Muertos
3-8 p.m. Saturday
Sugar skulls, white sugar pressed into molds and then decorated, represent departed souls on Día de los Muertos in Mexico and other Latin American countries. You’ll see plenty of them at the City of Annapolis’ Day of the Dead Festival at Maryland Hall, along with traditional skull face painting, dance groups, live music, salsa classes, plus food and drink. Costumes are encouraged. Free admission, with charges by individual vendors.
Woodward and Moore
6:45 p.m. Sunday
Here’s a duo you probably didn’t predict. Investigative journalist Bob Woodward and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will meet on the Francis Scott Key stage at St. John’s College for the latest in the Great Conversations at St. John’s College series. Organized by the Friends of St. John’s, proceeds will benefit the private, liberal arts college scholarship fund. $75.
Locked in with the Loockermans
7-8 p.m. Sunday
Time was when there wasn’t much in the way of street lights in early Annapolis, and most families locked themselves in to avoid the rowdy crowd headed out to taverns and causing mischief in the streets. The Hammond-Harwood House, where Frances and Richard Loockerman raised their 10 children starting in 1811, will explain the lockdown rituals they would have used in the Full Moon Tour. Well, maybe those Frances would have. Dickey loved to gamble and drink, so he might have been on the other side of the door many evenings.
Trick or treat
6 p.m. Tuesday
OK, technically Halloween is not an “event.” Trick-or-treating is perhaps the least-organized holiday tradition of the year. By the time you’re an adult, parties replace walking your neighborhood dressed up as the She-Hulk and getting candy (even candy corn).
If you live in Annapolis, there are some great neighborhoods for this. I won’t list them to avoid angry emails. But you know.
For kids who live where walking around after dark isn’t possible, or where neighbors don’t take part, several organizations have held trunk-or-treat events over the last week.
Tuesday is Halloween, and that’s where a little dash of chaos provides the spice to the sweets. And no, “they” don’t move trick or treating to Saturday when the holiday falls on a school night. Don’t even ask.
Here’s what the Annapolis Police Department recommends for having a fun, safe holiday.
- Choose bright costumes and have children carry flashlights or glow sticks.
- Have older children travel with friends.
- Plan a trick-or-treating schedule along familiar, well-lit streets.
- Make sure that kids know your cellphone number and address in case you get separated.
- Always walk young children to the door to receive treats. Don’t let children enter a home or vehicle unless you are with them.
- Teach kids how to call 911.
- Teach kids to say NO in a loud voice if someone tries to get them to accept anything other than a treat or to leave with them. Tell them to try to do anything they can to escape, like kicking, screaming or hitting.
That last one was scary.
Happy Halloween.
