By Lyndsey Peace, Editor-in-Chief
Recently there has been a movement to change the date of Halloween from Oct. 31 to the last Saturday in October. While there are valid reasons for this suggestion, I think moving the date of Halloween is a betrayal to previous generations’ childhood.
Parents have been the biggest supporters of the movement to change the date. Their reasoning is that if Halloween is moved to the last Saturday, they will be off work and can accompany their children while trick-or-treating.
Aside from parents, other supporters of this movement include adults who love Halloween and simply want more time to celebrate it. A lot of people are off work on Saturday, so if the change took place, they could potentially have more time to celebrate Halloween instead of rushing home after work.
Another argument is that if Halloween is on a Saturday, then trick-or-treating could start earlier in the day and the danger of trick-or-treating during nighttime could be eliminated.
Although I understand why parents are making these arguments, I am not in support of changing the date of Halloween. Maybe I’m resisting change just for the sake of tradition, but I want Halloween to remain on Oct. 31.
I remember growing up that my sister and brother and I would start the day on Oct. 31 on a high. If Halloween happened to fall on a school day that year, we would go to school with excitement and daydream about the buckets full of candy we would collect later that evening. Once we arrived home from school, we would eagerly change into our costumes and allow our parents a little time to relax before we planned our trick-or-treating route. You had to be strategic about the houses you hit, or else you would end up with “bad candy” of course.
When my parents were ready, we would race out the door and go to as many houses as possible. When we arrived home later that night, we would dump our candy on the floor and trade with each other if we didn’t like certain candies. My brother always took my Whoppers and my mom always wanted the lime green Tootsie fruit rolls while I wanted the simple Hershey chocolate bar.
By the end of the night, we were exhausted. Yes, it was late at night for trick-or-treating. But trick-or-treating during the day would never have had the same appeal. The night makes the activity somewhat ominous and therefore more fun.
My siblings and I would always go to bed with stomach aches and a sugar high, but I never had any regrets about Halloween being on a school night. Some of my best memories come from those nights. Let’s keep Halloween on Oct. 31.