Halloween Petition To Move Trick-or-Treating Has Enough Signatures To Go To The White House

Aug 06, 2019 by apost team

When people first began talking about moving the date of Halloween, people were not exactly on board.

However, over the last year, the tides appear to have changed somewhat. The Halloween and Costume Association started a petition on Change.org to put this plan into action and move Halloween activities to the last Saturday of the month, instead of October 31.

In just a few days, the petition got about 123,000 signatures. When any petition gets 100,000 signatures within 60 days, the White House has to review it. It will then be up to the Trump administration to decide to change the tradition.

If it gets approved, the actual date of Halloween doesn’t change, just the festivities. The goal of the petition is to create a bigger and safer celebration for everyone.

apost.com

There are about 3,800 Halloween related injuries every year according to Dr. John A. Staples. Trick or treating on weekdays results in kids going out later in the night which causes visibility issues. Most kids don’t carry a flashlight with them. Many of them don’t even have the supervision of an adult either.

If Halloween activities were on the weekend, more parents would be off work to go with their kids.

There have been mixed reactions online. Many are fully behind the movement. Others think it's ridiculous. Why not move all the holidays to the weekend if we are doing Halloween? 

Moving it to a Saturday creates problems of its own. Many Halloween parties take place on the last Saturday of the month. Moving the date of the trick or treating could potentially put the kids at risk as well because they would be out along with all the partiers.

Many people think it's mainly companies trying to increase sales who are getting behind the movement. They believe All Hallows’ Eve should be followed and respected the way it was originally intended. Halloween has its roots and traditions. Trick or treating wasn’t originally part of these traditions.

The History Channel stated, “"In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints; soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween.”

Halloween later turned into other activities such as carving pumpkins, trick or treating, and eating candy.

For now, the decision is out of our hands. It lies with the White House. National Trick or Treating Day could soon become a part of our lives. What do you think? Would you rather keep things as they are, or do the people behind the movement have a point?