Everyone knows October 31 is Halloween. The date has become synonymous with all things spooky and paranormal, and celebrating Halloween on the last day of October is a tradition that dates all the way back to 2,000 years ago when the Celts celebrated the festival of Samhain. But, because it's always on the 31st, Halloween sometimes falls on a weekday, and that apparently pisses people off. So, a group called the Halloween and Costume Association has actually started a petition to change the date of Halloween, and people are having some feelings about it.
The petition calls for moving Halloween from October 31 to the last Saturday of October and making it an all-day celebration.
The organizers claim that safety is one of their biggest motivators, because many parents don't put reflective accessories on their kids while they're trick or treating and there are numerous Halloween-related injuries each year. For that reason, they argue trick or treating should happen earlier in the day, not after work. Plus, they say, millennials love Halloween so "why cram it into 2 rushed evening weekday hours when it deserves a full day?"
The petition has more than 8,000 signatures at the time of this writing, but not everyone is a fan of the idea.
But others were totally on board with the idea, citing sleepy kids after trick or treating and bad weather.
One person even joked about wanting to skip October Halloween all together and move it to a warmer time of year.
Another wondered, why stop at Halloween? Let's move every national holiday to the weekend!
In fairness, safety is an important concern when it comes to Halloween.
Kids are more than twice as likely to be hit by a car on Halloween as they are on other days, per the National Safety Council. But a Saturday Halloween does nothing to eliminate time constraints for people who work weekends instead of a Monday to Friday schedule. And it's hard to say if moving the date and time of trick or treating would have a meaningful impact on safety.
It could be that there is no perfect day to celebrate Halloween. Or, it could be that we've celebrated on the perfect day all along — October 31.
