# Petition to move Halloween to last Saturday in October



## exascale (Jan 3, 2018)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/25/us/halloween-date-petition-trnd/index.html

The petition has got the attention of the national media: The petition, launched last year by the nonprofit Halloween & Costume Association, argues that moving the date of Halloween will lead to a "safer, longer, stress-free celebration."

I guess this would be a good think for us haunters. Having Halloween always on a Saturday night would make for the best turnout of TOTs. Although on the flip side, if you live in an area that has to deal with trouble makers, having Halloween always on Saturday night might make things worse.


----------



## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

"Sam"would not like it


----------



## Cephus (Sep 10, 2018)

Various groups have been doing this for at least 30 years. It hasn't moved. It will never move.


----------



## Sblanck (Sep 13, 2007)

I dont believe it will increase our TOT attendance. The Saturday prior to Halloween is typically the day that all the cities, churches and other organizations have their events. I feel folks will still go to those instead of TOTing. Then without the 31st as the day we will lose out.


----------



## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

The topic seems to come up pretty regularly. My .02 ...

Seems like the original intent of Halloween was as a festival - a big party/ceremony/celebration/observation of the season. Not something which would be crammed into a 7-9pm time slot on a Monday or Tuesday (bleck!!) or other weekday night.

The observance of Samhain was much more likely to be tied to a lunar phase / seasonal change as opposed to a specific date on our Gregorian calendar. So likely a +/- several day drift with our modern calendar already.

I get so few ToT's that it is hard to say how Saturday vs weekday day affects their numbers, but I know I tend to make a bigger/better show having the whole day to prepare vs taking half a day off work and/or a quick dash home to set out what props I can before the 2-hour rush begins. 

It 'seems like' a Saturday event would give more people more time to celebrate - which would in turn make the holiday/observance grow more.

Overall, I guess my first thought would be to make the 31st a national holiday / day off. But that is never likely to happen, so the next best thing would be to move the day to 'last Saturday' - which seems to have many benefits to me - as long as we are willing to give up our modern/Gregorian bias.


----------



## 69-cat (Jan 18, 2014)

They just need to leave things as they are, Holidays & History. Concentrate on the crap that needs help..... my 2 cents.
Dave


----------



## Hauntiholik (May 17, 2006)

I don't think it will happen. If it does get moved, I'll be celebrating Samhain instead of Halloween.


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Not a fan of moving the holiday and never will be.

Here's an interesting article on the history of Halloween:

https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween


----------



## Sblanck (Sep 13, 2007)

The thing that scares me about this how much traction it has gotten. People in my office who are not haunters or Halloween folks are talking about it.


----------



## xredge (Aug 21, 2014)

Sblanck said:


> I dont believe it will increase our TOT attendance. The Saturday prior to Halloween is typically the day that all the cities, churches and other organizations have their events. I feel folks will still go to those instead of TOTing. Then without the 31st as the day we will lose out.


I agree. It's funny a Halloween organization would be bringing this up as now with all the different events it should bring them more revenue as some people use multiple costumes.

I know by me there is so many halloween events especially at campgrounds way before. Like mine is the first 2 weeks in October goes into a 3rd week but only allowed 15 days then 7 days off. BUt I know of a couple campgrounds that have events in Sept. And just recently found out recently from a local shop that mostly does Halloween costumes year round that there is a Halloween event in July.


----------



## BunchOfHocusPocus (May 23, 2012)

I think no matter what, people will still celebrate it and create haunts. People just seem by changing it that it will cause less problems. I doubt anything will happen to be honest. They should just leave it as it is. That's just my two cents.


----------



## RWB (Oct 16, 2012)

corey872 said:


> It 'seems like' a Saturday event would give more people more time to celebrate - which would in turn make the holiday/observance grow more.


Great post and I'll be in the minority here in preferring the Saturday move. Setup and teardown can be a nightmare if you can't take the day off. When that happens I scale back a lot on my haunt or simply do not put up a display once my personal family party happens earlier in the month.


----------



## Wyatt Furr (Jun 5, 2006)

The latest I read was now they have backtracked and said lets celebrate both days...Call the last Saturday,"Trick or Treat Holiday" WTH? To me it a bunch of greedy retailers trying to up their numbers by selling more candy and costumes. So what's next? Move Christmas and 4th of July so everyone has a 3 days weekend...There are so many other issues facing this country. Halloween is not an issue.


----------



## GhostshipManistee (Sep 24, 2016)

So silly


----------



## bash (Oct 27, 2015)

This whole thing is ridiculous. I set up my home haunt for Halloween starting in September. Takes me 2-3 weeks to set up. Although I am likely in a minority as we have an acre and half that I set up outside and we also do our entire inside of the house. We host a relatively large Halloween party every year with around 100 guests invited. This is held on the Saturday before Halloween. Changing it to the last Saturday in October would not be good for us!! I normally use 2-3 weeks vacation in the month prior to prepare and set up.


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Wyatt Furr said:


> The latest I read was now they have backtracked and said lets celebrate both days...Call the last Saturday,"Trick or Treat Holiday" WTH? To me it a bunch of greedy retailers trying to up their numbers by selling more candy and costumes. So what's next? Move Christmas and 4th of July so everyone has a 3 days weekend...There are so many other issues facing this country. Halloween is not an issue.


Amen to that, Wyatt.

Our experience with Halloween landing on a Friday or Saturday - we have often seen fewer numbers of TOTs on those days in our area.


----------



## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:All Hallow's Eve is the day before All Saint's Day. (always has been) I argue if they change Halloween, what's next, Christmas? Halloween will always be October 31st for me, and them mucking about with it just leads to confusion and chaos. Leave things as they are. One year when our idiot City Manager changed trick or treat to a Saturday I had trick or treaters on Saturday and Sunday (which was actually October 31st).


----------



## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

Halloween is the 31st of October. If you want to have Halloween parties on a Saturday, that’s fine, but don’t move the Holiday.


----------



## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

I understand their line of logic or reasoning, they want it on a day when the kids (young or old) can have the time to do their thing, without the risk of as much traffic and such potentially endangering the TOTs. For us, it would mean, potentially, more time during daylight hours on the day of to do setup for TOTs, parties, etc. It also helps keep it from being a long night before a school day, or competing with church or religious activities for most people.
For many neighborhoods, they already do that kind of thing, or things like "Trunk or Treat" on a Saturday evening for the very same reasons.


----------



## Sblanck (Sep 13, 2007)

fontgeek said:


> I understand their line of logic or reasoning, they want it on a day when the kids (young or old) can have the time to do their thing, without the risk of as much traffic and such potentially endangering the TOTs. For us, it would mean, potentially, more time during daylight hours on the day of to do setup for TOTs, parties, etc. It also helps keep it from being a long night before a school day, or competing with church or religious activities for most people.
> For many neighborhoods, they already do that kind of thing, or things like "Trunk or Treat" on a Saturday evening for the very same reasons.


Well for me it means I can only attend to my yard haunt. I typically will take a few items and set up at our neighborhood Trunk or treat. Then on October 31st I do my thing at home. So if this changes then I lose out on some fun.


----------



## Death's Door (Mar 22, 2006)

I have experienced that when Halloween is on the weekend, I don't have as many TOTers because of the parties and Trunk or Treat activites. I would also be missing out on parties because of hosting my own yardhaunt. Let's keep it on the 31st because that "IS" the special night not only to have our haunts but also to celebrate Samhain.

I think our country has other issues to deal with that are more important right now.


----------



## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Halloween is,was,and always will be the 31st. No One on this planet will EVER get me to celebrate it any other night. If anyone tries trick or treating anytime before that they will be coming to any empty,uninviting place.


----------



## costumetiger (Apr 2, 2019)

Don't change it! Agree with most here. Just celebrate on a different day if needbe.


----------



## suppleupagus (Aug 25, 2016)

This sounds a lot like “participation medal” BS, and it needs to stop. We have been celebrating Halloween on October 31’st and will continue to do so. I dont see changing it because of “inconvenience” and safety, give me a break. A kid could easily get hit on a Saturday night just as easily as a Wednesday. Get over yourselves. Its ONE night, so what if its a school night or whatever? Do people not remember being excited at school, talking with friends about TOTing? This is ridiculous and stupid. Halloween will always be the 31’st!!


----------



## suppleupagus (Aug 25, 2016)

Oh, and by the way, statistically, there are more drunk drivers on the road on Saturday, more than any other day. So good luck changing the celebration to Saturday due to safety concerns


----------



## trachcanman99 (Sep 4, 2015)

their logic is all about pushing sales for costumes for the adults to have more parties, which means the kids don't get to go trick or treating because everybody is at the party. if you allow the churches any say in it the holiday will either be ended because it is evil , (no money in their pocket),or they will change it to a day celebrating some saint or other event like they did with Christmas. Halloween marks the point half way thru the fall equinox and the winter solstice. Leave it on the existing date.


----------



## suppleupagus (Aug 25, 2016)

COMPLETELY Agree! Churches serve their own agenda and are not for the good everyone. Disgusting


----------



## Sblanck (Sep 13, 2007)

suppleupagus said:


> COMPLETELY Agree! Churches serve their own agenda and are not for the good everyone. Disgusting


Not all churches. Mine encourages our parishioners to stay home and participate in the holiday.
https://www.huttobible.com/celebrate-halloween


----------



## PuppytheDog (Sep 2, 2019)

Sblanck said:


> suppleupagus said:
> 
> 
> > COMPLETELY Agree! Churches serve their own agenda and are not for the good everyone. Disgusting
> ...


Glad to hear that! My 60-something-year-old pastor got to talking with me about Halloween and the fact I work in a haunted attraction.

He told me he never liked the strict regiment of "This is how the church has always operated" or "deviation from church functions is evil" etc, and supports me working to break the stigmas between church and Halloween.

I'm praying more christians will realize that Halloween isn't "the devil's birthday" and more haunters will realize that christians aren't Puritan witch-hunting sticks in the mud.

So, at least my church supports Halloween on OCTOBER 31!!! Not Saturday!


----------



## xredge (Aug 21, 2014)

Growing up as a teen. The Church that I went to always had haunted houses ran by the teens to fund the youth group.


----------



## Tokwik (Oct 12, 2011)

suppleupagus said:


> COMPLETELY Agree! Churches serve their own agenda and are not for the good everyone. Disgusting


Christian churches that oppose Hallowe'en really should read a history book.

Just sayin.


----------



## Hauntofthelakes (Sep 21, 2019)

This would be amazing if this passed


----------



## Sblanck (Sep 13, 2007)

Hauntofthelakes said:


> This would be amazing if this passed


For those of us who have a yard haunt and trick or treators are our demographic we will suffer. Moving Halloween to Saturday will then put all of us in competition with the church, city and other organizational events that happen on the Saturday prior to Halloween. At least now those events have their day and we still have ours.

The thing that irritates me the most is when George W moved the Fall back time change to after Halloween. Prior to that change it was the weekend before so it doesn't get dark earlier now.


----------

