National Halloween Petition Letter

[hereyago]

Why are people even considering this? Many parents are too ''stranger danger" scared to take their kids door to door(if you live in a rough neighborhood that is one thing, bit of you don't live where you have to dodge bullets.
So they will do the mall thing or trunk and treat at a church.

 

[disneychrista]

From my years on the DIS I’ve learned that some communities already moved trick or treating to the last Saturday. So maybe these people believe everyone should.

 

[MamaLema]

Feeling a bit foolish asking this but how is moving Halloween going to make it safer?

 

[BalooFan]

A National Halloween Petition Letter is making it's rounds across the U.S., stating that the Halloween holiday should be moved from Oct. 31st to the last Saturday in October, mainly for safety reasons. They had mentioned that there were over 70,000 signatures thus far and that 75,000 are needed to make this a proposed bill that could go in front of the P.O.T.U.S.

First, as others have stated, Halloween is not a U.S. federal holiday and is certainly not unique to the U.S. Halloween is on October 31, All Hallows’ Eve.

Second, this is not how the U.S. legislative system operates. Unless I missed something big in my high school Government class, bills aren’t sent to the president from online petitions.

Third, at least in my state, trick or treat hours are set by individual jurisdictions. If citizens are interested in changing trick or treat (not Halloween) dates and times, they should contact their local government.

 

[EMom]

Until I joined this board, it never occurred to me that Halloween would be celebrated any day other than Oct. 31. That's just how we do it here. After joining, I realized other places might do it the Saturday before or only between certain hours. If you want to do that, fine. No widespread law is needed. Keep it local. The only time we have not done Halloween on 10/31 was last year, I think. It rained. And not just ordinary rain...nope, we had serious flooding in our area of the state. Each neighborhood handled it differently. Ours posted something on our FB page about make up ToT night, so the kids could have fun and we could all get rid of our candy. Since NO ONE left the house on 10/31, we just waited until the rain stopped and had it a little later.

 

[fly girl]

This was one of the great things about goingto Catholic school - we always had All Saints Day off!

Yep! But that one year Halloween lands on a Friday ... doh! No extra day off. (same when December 8 lands on a weekend)

 

[lanejudy]

Feeling a bit foolish asking this but how is moving Halloween going to make it safer?

Presumably to have Saturday afternoon trick-or-treat, in daylight hours.

 

[amberpi]

Christmas would be easier on the third Saturday of December too and it’d be just as silly to move it. And nye would be far easier on a Saturday (though I still wouldn’t go out).

 

[diznymom]

I've been hearing this same complaint for over 50 years. (Yes, I am that old). Ever since I was about 8, I've heard people wanting Halloween moved to Saturday. I totally disagree with them.

 

[disney11fan]

I was listening to the national nightly news when I heard this come over the air:

A National Halloween Petition Letter is making it's rounds across the U.S., stating that the Halloween holiday should be moved from Oct. 31st to the last Saturday in October, mainly for safety reasons. They had mentioned that there were over 70,000 signatures thus far and that 75,000 are needed to make this a proposed bill that could go in front of the P.O.T.U.S.

While I understand the concerns on the signers' part, I am hoping this doesn't have any effect in any way to Disney's scheduling for MNSSHP. Our vacation we have planned for and paid off revolves around being at MNSSHP on Halloween Night, Thursday Oct. 31st, 2019 (one of two reasons for our trip to WDW). There is no budging on this point for us; our vacation just couldn't and wouldn't happen. Logistically, it would be a nightmare as we have no wiggle room in our scheduling to accommodate this.

Just putting this out there to inform...
Good night, and good luck.

Lol. Funny. Please.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I don't care when "Halloween" is celebrated, I don't participate.

Okay?

Halloween will forever remain October 31, All Hallows Eve, the eve before All Saints Day on November 1.

Well, duh! Change the petition to include making All Saints Day to the first Sunday in November! Voila!

I still remember when I was a kid and Halloween fell on a Saturday, at least my city would change it to Friday. Saturday was parent date night​

 

[eco-muse]

I think the whole thing is ridiculous. Trick-or-Treating should happen on Halloween, which should not be moved to a Saturday (or any other day). Just keep it on October 31. (Personally, I celebrate Samhain, which isn't affected by this petition, but still...some people never know when to leave things alone.)

 

[sweetpeama]

I literally live 300 yards from where I grew up and I can say that we managed to go out T or T ing 3hen Halloween fell on a school night and managed to have our hind ends in our seats at school the next morning if November 1 was not on a weekend. There might have been a small handful of churches who did harvest parties as an alternative back in the 80s and early 90s when I was growing up but they definently were not huge advertised things. We were driven by a parent or when my dad went to work on a highway paving crew late in my middle school years either my mom drove us or she made arangements for one of my older cousins who was in their mid 20s to take us out. We had only a couple of neighbors that were close enough that we could walk to though we did have a few roads that we would be dropped off at the beginning and we would be picked up at the end while our parents (typically the dads) would gather at the house half a mile down at the end and visiit with each other while enjoying salted in the shell peanuts. We would easily go through a huge bag of candy to give out each year with the local school having between 100 and 210 students to grade 8 with another 120-150 either not in school or in high school but still going out especially if they had younger siblings. There is now close to 400 students in the same school and since my DH works nights I take what I am giving out (not necesarilly candy) to my parents so I can do the driving. They get a grand total of 7 visitors on a busy year (translation the roads are good and my cousin makes the 30 minute drive to bring her kids in from our grandparents old farm where she and her family live. We go to 4-7 houses depending on the year that we have on our stop and let them see the costumes tihis year (all of which are relatives or close friends) list then we try and go to at least on party at a local church which is a small one. If we have a year that it is warm enough and it is not pouring rain or a nice lovely 40 MPH sustained WNW wind with gusts of 50-60 MPH we might walk the neighborhood where a couple of the stops are a bit. (The last 2 years we have had one or the other of them). Oh and a little note over 80% of the students at the little school that I went to growing up were farm and ranch kids so that met that not only did they have to be up and in school when it started at 8:30 AM there was also this thing called chores that had to be done before school for many of them. High school students had to catch the bus anywhere between 6:15 and 7:30 as the high school started at 8 AM and there was a commute to get there and even more had chores by that age. The things that our parents did is we were allowed 1 maybe 2 if we were lucky and picked a smaller piece candy when we got home after T or T ing which was always after coming home getting what little homework we had ( teachers were nice and assigned less that night), put in 20-30 minutes with instrument practice, chores-most of my classmates and myself had between 30-60 minutes each night. Most families did not go out until 7 PM and typically most were done by 8 or 8:30 with a few stragglers who had older grade schoolers staying out till 9 PM.
The only year that we had any sort of party was the year that there were several calls starting in mid September to local law enforcement that that people were planning to lace the candy they gave out with poison and put razor blades in apples. The community organization in the area I grew up in decided to have a safe party with some games and plenty of candy to give out. Other areas near us still had a tradional T or T ing and people just tossed out anything that looked suspicious and even took their kids candy to a local hospital to be ex rayed,

 

[BadPinkTink]

oh America... sigh..... Halloween is actually a Celtic / Irish celebration, which was introduced to America by European settlers. It pre dates Christianity and originates from the Celtic Pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced: sow (female pig) - in ) The festival celebrated the end of summer and the start of winter.

There are actually historical reasons behind alot of the modern day festivities. During the Celtic Pagan festival of Samhain people used to light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

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.

https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

How can people be so stupid to think that a festival, customs and traditions over 2,000 years old can be changed cos its "inconvenient" to their schedules!

 

[Nancyg56]

From my years on the DIS I’ve learned that some communities already moved trick or treating to the last Saturday. So maybe these people believe everyone should.

Some communities alreadry have moved their Tor T to the last Saturday in October.

I think that every community should do what works for them. I remember after the October blizzard we had to cancel Halloween, and read the outrage from folks who were not in our area. Ummmmm we still have live power lines down all over the town, trees blocking roads, no power anywhere in town. As a community, we knew what we needed to do and I imagine every other one does as wel.

 

[disykat]

It's hard for me to see how this could possibly be a safety issue and certainly not a federal issue, but I'm all for moving community trick or treating to the Saturday before. That's simply a matter of convenience.

My community has never moved trick or treating but I am always THRILLED when Halloween is on a Friday or Saturday night. As a former teacher, we all celebrated those years because it made a huge difference behaviors since the kids had a day or two to recuperate before returning to school.

 

[tvguy]

Presumably to have Saturday afternoon trick-or-treat, in daylight hours.

No, it would still be at night. Some just don't want it on a school night anymore. I think it would be worse because I don't think we've had a tricker or treaters past 7:30 pm in 25 years, if there is no school the next day lord knows how late they would stay out. And remember for some, it is a religious holiday too.

 

[tvguy]

They had mentioned that there were over 70,000 signatures thus far and that 75,000 are needed to make this a proposed bill that could go in front of the P.O.T.U.S.

There is no National initiative process, so it is meaningless. In states like California, to get something on the ballot you need signatures equal to 5% of the ballots cast in the last election. IF there was a national initiative process, and they used that same standard, you would need almost 7 million signatures, not 75,000.
And even if Congress were to act on this and the President were to approve it, the U.S. Supreme Court would throw it out. That type of regulation is something local governments need to decide......at city and county level.

 

[disney11fan]

BOO....not going to happen. I tried moving my birthday to the last Friday of the month and social security laughed at me.

 

[rajak73]

There is no National initiative process, so it is meaningless. In states like California, to get something on the ballot you need signatures equal to 5% of the ballots cast in the last election. IF there was a national initiative process, and they used that same standard, you would need almost 7 million signatures, not 75,000.
And even if Congress were to act on this and the President were to approve it, the U.S. Supreme Court would throw it out. That type of regulation is something local governments need to decide......at city and county level.

I was just looking up the same here, In Nebraska, it's a percent of registered voters, so we have 1.2 mil registered voters in Nebraska, to have a constitutional admendment it would take 10%, 121,,000 voters to sigh said petition. For just a state admendment it drops to 7%, so 85,000 registered voters, I find it really hard to believe that with 75,000 signatures, (figures up to about 0.05 % of registered voters in the US) that it would go to the POTUS.