Gargle a little, drink some hot cider or tea and warm up your vocal chords for tonight’s big performance. At 9:00 PM this evening, you and your family can take part in the first-ever Annual Planet-Wide Moon Howl!

Just in time for the Where the Wild Things Are film, the Moon Howl marks a night where everyone on the planet can stop what they’re doing—the mundane details of day-to-day living, the glazed-eye primetime viewing, the dish-washing, phone-answering, and other busywork-doing—and embark on the wonderful act of howling.

And I bring up Wild Things for that very reason. Recently, my husband and I watched and were enchanted by the film; we didn’t take our preschooler, having seen the somewhat frightening previews and watching a Spike Jonze interview in which he noted that it was a film about childhood—not necessarily for children. I second Jonze’s warning—it’s an utterly awesome film, but don’t bring young children.

(Though our daughter delights in the book, I know that the film is much too scary for her, and likely so for most children her age (four) and perhaps even a bit older. I wanted to tell the parents at the theater with tiny kids—some younger than ours—the same thing but knew it wasn’t in my place to do so. Still…)

Anyhow, since the film, we like to call out, “Let the wild rumpus start!” as we hurriedly clean house, our preschooler jumps on the bed, we play chase, whatever. And we’ve also taken up the pastime of howling.

It’s oddly freeing, wildly fun, and once you start it’s really hard to stop. We like to implement a variety of vowel sounds into our howls (No kidding here at all!) and alternate between wide, round sounds and narrower wolf calls.

If you want to get involved, all you have to do is howl at the moon tonight at nine. It’s actually an hour past our little wild thing’s bedtime, but seeing as Daylight Savings Time is a week away, we figure it won’t hurt to stay up a little late for one night of howling.

From howl parties to lone howling, merchandise to posters to download and pass out, the Worldwide Moon Howl is rapidly becoming a bit of a phenomenon. To find out more (or to order or download materials), click here.