A Floating Halloween

Connecticut State Representative Tim Larson is making plans for next year to introduce a proposal to make Halloween a floating holiday. In the way that Thanksgiving is always the last Thursday in November, the proposal seeks to make Halloween the last Saturday in October every year.

Of course with any change you will have people lining up on either side of the issue. Some people say to leave Halloween alone because it has always been that way and that people have been doing it forever. On the other hand, some people say it’s a great idea.

I can remember trick or treating when I was a kid and being so bummed out about having to go to school the next day. From 1985-2003, Halloween has been on a Friday or Saturday only seven times. Two of those times were when I was one and two years old, so they don’t even count. I didn’t go trick or treating when I was 17, so that’s out. That leaves only four years of my life where I was blessed with the gift of a true Halloween weekend.

I understand that there are some parents who don’t want to have to rush. Let’s say on average, a kid gets out of school at 2:30 p.m. and that Halloween ends at 9:00 p.m. That means parents only have about 6.5 hours to pick up the kids from school, fight traffic, get them fed, get their homework done, get them into their costume and make up, go out trick or treating, come home, get them cleaned up, and then put them to bed so they can get sleep for school the next day. That’s a lot to do in that small amount of time.

Conversely, I can also understand that a weekday Halloween happens more often than not and that people need to get over themselves. If you don’t have time to help your kids get ready for Halloween, either don’t celebrate it, free up your schedule, or have someone else take them. A centuries old celebration shouldn’t be moved around just because you get irritated at how tradition doesn’t fit in with your hectic schedule.

What really gets me though is that no one is mentioning the religious implication of this move. To Representative Larson and the people in favor of the change, moving Halloween is like moving Flag Day. It is a non issue for them because all they are celebrating is costumes, candy, and commercialization. But there is a percentage of this country that takes Halloween to be as meaningful as a religious holiday. To them it’s not about having the time to get the kids McDonalds before trotting them around the neighborhood, it’s about lifting the veil between this world and the next and taking the time to remember those that have passed. If you suggested that they made Christmas or Hanukkah floating holidays for the sake of not wanting to travel in the snow as much, you would have a religious riot on your hands.

My point is if you are going to argue in favor for keeping Halloween on the 31st, do it because it’s just as important to some people as Easter is to others. Don’t do it for the sake of fearing change. If that’s the case you can have your turkey-less Thanksgiving in late September like the Pilgrims did while munching down on rabbit meat and calling yourself a saint. Don’t be afraid to stick up for beliefs, just because they aren’t yours doesn’t mean that it isn’t the right thing to do.