What do you think about the idea of Hallowe’en on the weekend?

Halloween is over in my neighborhood at 7:30, little ones and their parents are off the street by twilight or a little earlier.

I could care less.

I have NO children & I have NO kids coming to my door for candy, so I don’t see where the problem lies!!! My ex’s daughter loved Halloween & I NEVER had a school issue. She had to have her schoolwork done BEFORE going out. I took her out just as it was getting dark & she was back home & in bed at her normal time. I would think it would be even MORE dangerous for the kids to be out on weekends because there are MORE drunks out & about & the young adults are in the process of getting ready to party & NOT paying the proper attention!!!

“Officially moved” is not something that can happen, since Halloween is not an “offical” holiday.

In my town, the local merchant trick-or-treating sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce is always the Friday afternoon before Halloween. Most people have their parties the Saturday before.

Halloween during the week is, as others have said, pretty much a minor event.

It’s big around here still and I like the idea of having on the 31st. I get a lot of kids between 6 and 8; there’s a curfew after 8. I’m for keeping it real even though I get tired of answering the door.

@janbb The absolute BEST Halloween my step daughter ever had was the year that one little old lady was dreading answering the door so she dressed up in a glow-in-the-dark skeleton costume, turned off ALL the lights inside, had a black screen behind her, turned on a blacklight, & sat at a table with her door open. Her front door was positioned to where the children couldn’t see her until they turned on her porch toward the door & for the initial first few seconds ALL they could see was the outline of the skeleton with the arm reaching out with a hand full of candy. It gave each child their own personal scary experience The initial response was a scream followed by an excited giggle as they received their candy & left the porch. Amazingly, NOT one child warned the incoming victims as to what was getting ready to happen to them. The little old lady had one of her BEST Halloweens ever herself as she got to listen to fear & giggling children for hours on end plus she wasn’t interrupted by a knock at the door every time she got comfy on the sofa!!! Just saying…

Fortunately, I’ll be out of town on business and will avoid it altogether, this year.

I guess I’d wonder why? It’s supposed to be for little kids. They don’t have the same requirements as grown ups who want any excuse to party.
The grown ups can arbitrarily pick a weekend around Halloween to party.

Oh, @zenvelo, eyeroll and raspberry at you! You know what I meant.

@Dutchess_III, the “why” is because there are increased numbers of car/pedestrian accidents (just google it, too many sites and numbers to link to) and it depends on how you define “little kids”. Around here, the kids are out regularly until about age 12 or 13. And a certain amount of disruption in and around schools about just how much attention should be paid and what kind.

I actually dread the idea of a weekend Halloween because it means you could be interrupted all day.

Should be moved to the 13th month instead.

I think grown ups are getting entirely too involved in this “holiday.”

@Dutchess_III Same!!! Have you seen the blast on social media about ‘Please give our teenagers candy, let them be kids as long as possible”..... What’s your opinion on that?

Halloween has to be on its traditional date, like Friday the 13th has to be on a 13th and New Year’s on midnight last day of December.

I totally agree with @mazingerz88. October 31st is what Hallowe’en is: the eve (“e’en”) of All Hallows, which are November 1st and 2nd, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, respectively—the “hallows” (holy days). Hallowe’en is the night before—the eve. (That apostrophe is mostly lost now, but it still has a meaning.)

It’s not the property or domain of any “officials” to move it or change it. They have more of a right to say the Fourth of July isn’t going to be on the fourth than they have to alter October 31st.

I will answer my door with candy on October 31st and not on any other day. If “they” move it, then it’s lights out at my house.

I also predict that an attempt to assert local authority over this tradition and change it will have the effect of killing it off. It’s one of the few social customs we have that are not overtly religious (despite its origins). I think that’s why Halloween and St. Valentine’s Day get such heavy play in schools and in retail. They’re relatively safe because they don’t seem to offend anyone’s ethnic or religious sensitivities, despite the efforts of some to make an issue.

As long as the teens aren’t actively competing with littler ones I’ll give them some candy @KNOWITALL. Who cares? It’s not like I don’t have enough. I usually have TOO much and really want to get rid of it. I start handing it out by the handfuls as the night starts to wear down.

What I don’t like is that the shops and stores downtown are doing this trick or trunk stuff now. It diverts the kids away from the residential houses over the last few years, so the trickers are few and far between any more. It’s like this mass, industrial exodus of trick or treaters slowly moving down the sidewalks downtown with their bags and mouths gaping open. No one really interacts with anyone. No one acts like the 3 year old Dracula scared them! It’s like it’s become commercialized. And that is’s sad to me.

@Dutchess_III Same here. In our small town, only the churches are really doing anything midweek, trunk or treats. Even the kids don’t like it…lol

“Trunk or treats”—what’s that?

Commercialized tick or treating, really. I guess people drive to a selected place en masse and hand treats out of the trunk of their cars, I guess so the kids don’t have to walk or whatever. Or maybe so the parents don’t have to walk around. Not sure where the place is or how it works because I would never do that. It’s not that the day is sacred, but there is a little more to it than just the candy.

@Jeruba That’s what the churches do here in the Midwest for Halloween. They have their party at church, play games, etc…, then all the kids go out to the parking lot where the cars are arranged trunk out, full of treats and often decorated. That way parents can feel safer getting candy from people they know well, go home and it’s done.

It’s something about safety and celebrating Halloween in an acceptable manner to God, from what I understand. No devils or anything unholy.

I love the idea of having it on the weekend. There would be more participation.

Hopefully with more kids being thrown out of windows, while outside they are filming an advertisement for Tidyman’s Shaggy Carpets™.

I wouldn’t want it. Some dates do matter, and this is one of them. Obviously the holiday meant more to me as a kid, but I’d be sad to see this change. What, is it going to end up in November some years, after All Hallows? I’m just sick of all these silly changes. In California they’re talking about Daylight Savings Time all year long. Yeesh.

Actually, I’d LOVE Daylights Savings Time ALL year as long as they choose the extra sunlight at night!!! I prefer to sleep in during the morning & taking care of errands in the late afternoon. I don’t care what time the sun comes up & love watching it set!!! I go through deep depression every year when we switch back to standard time because it gets dark way too early!!!

Don’t more people drink on the weekend? Wouldn’t that make it less safe for the kids with more intoxicated people on the roads? I’m not quite following that logic.

I’m a proponent of celebrating on the day of the occasion.

@Stache excellent point.

@Stache, in my area, when Hallowe’en falls on a Saturday, the accident rate drops dramatically. People aren’t coming home after work, so the neighborhoods have fewer cars, and more parents are out with their kids.

^ Here the drunks are having their first drink with breakfast & heading out for the bars about the time the sun goes down. I didn’t care what night it was, my step daughter NEVER went t or t without me being with her. It’s the parents job to keep their children safe!!!

The local news reported last night that twice as many children die on Halloween as any other day. The disturbing part was that it is the teenagers who are most likely to die!!!

I’d like to see the source for that claim @LadyMarissa.

Look it up

That’s not how it works. First you specified your “local news.” I haven’t a clue who your local news is.
Second; when you make a claim that can be doubted, it is up to you to provide the evidence to back up your claim.

Oh, for pete’s sake. It works any way she or you wants it to. Believe her or no, but you may get a more satisfying collection of sites if you look it up yourself.

The government is controlled by lizard people from outer space.
Look it up, it is true.

From Forbes so it must be true

Last night was the most depressing Halloween ever. I think we had 5 trick or treaters total. Rick had reason to be downtown at about 6:00 and businesses were just mobbed by trick or treaters. The court house had blow up bounce houses on their lawn and there were a ton of kids there.

I think my doorbell rang once. I ignored it.

We had well over a hundred

No wonder you have so many mass shootings.

We had 7 kids and 5 were driven into neighborhood.

Same thing here @Dutchess_III the local shops and stores had people at the front doors passing out candy.

I had about 25 – 30 which is a bit down from previous years but I was out until 6.

Parents have always been out with their children on Halloween. The only thing I see that’s new is helicopter parenting of older children and paranoia.