Halloween is next Monday...NOT Saturday

[jrmasm]

That only happens in places where the residents have made the mistake of voting in micro-meddling bureaucratic busybodies.

So, if some poor kid knocks on a door at 6:45, does you community send in a swat team and arrest the scofflaw?

And does you locality tell people when the earliest dates they can put up Christmas decorations? Or do they ban them and insist on bland "winter festival" decor?

The degree to which some people have been mollycoddled into compliance with "celebrate our way or the highway" mandates put in place by petty local authorities never ceases to amaze me.
Halloween
is October 31
unless you are
a sheeple

Or a patriot who doesn't allow trifling civil servant types to mandate how they celebrate holidays.

Ya - in strict compliance with the local Holiday Gestapo.



Only in a minority of areas that allow this sort of totalitarian behavior. The majority of America does not ban trick or treating on Halloween.



And here is an alternative viewpoint: this sort of "here are the offical rules for when and how you can celebrate a Holiday" stuff only rears its unattractive head when the locals are too asleep to notice that local micro-management types with far too much time on their hands are at it again with their favorite hobby ...looking for more control over others.



Apparently, yes:

"The National Retail Federation predicts that Americans will spend about $6.86 billion on Halloween-related items this season. That's the most recorded in the nine-year history of the federation's holiday survey....retailers report that spending on Halloween decorations is now second only to what is spent on Christmas decorations.."

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/oct/25/b6-ct2-halloween-really-big-business/

Yep, I knew the "we must regulate your behavior on a holiday" idiocy had no bounds and here's proof. A municipality in Delaware (Rehoboth Beach) actually has a local ordinance -- a law -- on the books which not only regulates:

- what dates one can trick or treat on
- the hours one can trick or treat on
- but also who can and can't trick or treat.

A very, very commentary on the populace there for voting in the sort of "grey matter" that is insane enough to draft this sort of "law."

Here's the text:

"198-33. Halloween regulations; exceptions. [Amended 10-14-1977 by Ord. No. 1077-2; 10-11-1991 by Ord. No. 1091-1]

A.No person shall permit his child or any child under his control to go about the streets, ways and/or sidewalks within the corporate limits of the City of Rehoboth Beach for the purpose of causing mischief of any sort; provided, however, that children who have not attained the age of 14 years may go upon the streets, ways and/or sidewalks from door to door or house to house for treats between the hours of 6:00 p.m., prevailing time, and 8:00 p.m., prevailing time, on October 31 of any year; provided, however, that if October 31 shall be a Sunday, such going from door to door and house to house for treats shall take place on the evening of October 30 between the hours of 6:00 p.m., prevailing time, and 8:00 p.m., prevailing time.

B.Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit the gathering and participation of children in a Halloween parade or costume contest sponsored by the Rehoboth Beach Chamber of Commerce or the service clubs of the city"

Did you miss ToT one year because you didn't know it was on a day other than 10/31? I'm just wondering because you seem to be having a very strong reaction to this discussion.

Or are you this passionate about all holidays?

 

[AndreaDM]

I'm flabbergasted that this thread is still going.

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

There seem to be a lot of flabbergasted people on this thread.

I wasn't really being serious. I am surprised that there are places where there isn't a set time.

Nobody HAS to participate in Trick-or-Treat (sorry, forgot to quote a post). The point I'm trying to make is that a lot of people enjoy it, and I see nothing wrong with making it as easy as possible, for as many people as possible, to participate. I think it's all a part of adapting to circumstances. The "no lights" rule worked when I was a kid. Now, everyone I know has motion sensor lights.

I dislike being told what to do as much asthe next person, but like I said... Trick or Treat is a community-wide event on a national level, moreso than anything else I can think of. And it's a lot more fun the more people are involved.

 

[SingleFather]

I wasn't really being serious. I am surprised that there are places where there isn't a set time.

A set time as some people have been posting about here and on their facebook pages showing photos of their loot wouldn't work here or would have to be much later. Most parents are not getting home until after the time when other areas start so no those kids in after school or day care wouldn't even get a chance to trick or treet plus there wouldn't be anyone home to hand out candy!

 

[jrmasm]

A set time as some people have been posting about here and on their facebook pages showing photos of their loot wouldn't work here or would have to be much later. Most parents are not getting home until after the time when other areas start so no those kids in after school or day care wouldn't even get a chance to trick or treet plus there wouldn't be anyone home to hand out candy!

Oh, people here don't have jobs or kids in after school care? 6-8pm once a year isn't that big a deal.

 

[zurgswife]

With all the snow and ice here Saturday night would have been impossible. I wonder what happen to those areas that dictated Saturday night...Does it now get moved to Nov 5th?

 

[jrmasm]

Our ToT was Thursday. It rained right up to the start time and then stopped. So it was a little muddy that night but not too bad.

Some communities in our area are having it tonight and some had to it to 11/3 due to power outages from the snow.

I think we got lucky. I'd rather deal with mud than snow for ToT.

 

[DeaverTex]

There seem to be a lot of flabbergasted people on this thread.

I'm flabbergasted that so many are flabbergasted on this thread.

I'm flabbergasted that this thread is still going.

So much flabbergastication in one spot.

 

[JenM]

I'm flabbergasted that so many are flabbergasted on this thread.

I'm being strongly reminded of a meltdown several people had on my township's Facebook page this afternoon:

-We got hit with snow and ice this weekend. We have trees and power lines down, a ton of homes without power, not to mention ice and slush everywhere. This was a bad storm, and we never get snow this early in the year.

-For safety reasons, the mayor decided to postpone trick-or-treating until Friday. Nobody is canceling Halloween, everyone will get to go trick-or-treating...but they're just going to have it another day this week when things have been cleared up. Yes, it stinks..but let's err on the side of caution, ok? Downed power lines and closed roads are nothing to play around with.

-Well, a few people decided to hijack the announcement to cry that "government" can't decide when we can trick-or-treat, that they're infringing on a religious holiday, then started calling parents who wanted to keep their kids home today stupid for because they heeded the warnings that there's a possible safety issue. Some of them are now refusing to greet trick-or-treaters on Friday.

It was ridiculous! No one was trying to cancel Halloween. It was an emergency situation. There were tree branches still falling today, and a good part of the town still doesn't have power. Sure, it stinks...but better safe than sorry, and we're going have it on Friday instead of today. There was nothing sinister about that. Crazy!

 

[cornflake]

Honestly, the notion of NOT having a set time is flabbergasting to me.

I get that not everyone is used to set times and/or different dates... but do those of you who keep bringing up other holidays REALLY not see the difference??

Moving a New Year's celebration? What's to move? If people want to celebrate New Year's Eve on September 6th, that doesn't affect anyone. We have Christmas in July and some people celebrate their half-birthdays and if your family can't all make in to town on the last Thursday in November, sometimes people celebrate Thanksgiving on a different day. If your kid's birthday is on a Wednesday, I think the majority of people would have a party on a different day. Someone else mentioned the Fourth of July... around here, different towns DO have fireworks on different days. They're not all on the 4th and it never occured to me to be mad at the governement for it. (I have enough other reasons for that.)

I can almost guarantee that as we get closer to "the holiday season" there will be at least one thread where someone is upset that, for whatever reason, he/she can't celebrate on the specific day and the consensus will be to celebrate on a different day.

Trick-or-treating affects the entire community. I really don't understand why it's so strange that some communities might put some restrictions on it. If you want to celebrate Easter in June, I don't have to buy a bag of candy and man my door for a couple hours in order to accomodate you.

Dunno where you live, but in my town, New Year's Eve? Kind of a deal. Aside from the giant deal it is, there are also a ton of people thowing NYE parties, etc.

Thanksgiving is also kind of a deal. Yes, someone can stage it on a different day but there are communal, societal things that happen on that day.

The set times and different dates sounds just as bizarre as it would as if your town decided Thanksgiving should be on Saturday, between the hours of 7 and 9. Many, many people do the 'national' Thanksgiving stuff, the parade, football, Thanksgiving cartoons, and have dinner much earlier than a normal dinner hour.

 

[Metsfan520]

I'm being strongly reminded of a meltdown several people had on my township's Facebook page this afternoon:

-We got hit with snow and ice this weekend. We have trees and power lines down, a ton of homes without power, not to mention ice and slush everywhere. This was a bad storm, and we never get snow this early in the year.

-For safety reasons, the mayor decided to postpone trick-or-treating until Friday. Nobody is canceling Halloween, everyone will get to go trick-or-treating...but they're just going to have it another day this week when things have been cleared up. Yes, it stinks..but let's err on the side of caution, ok? Downed power lines and closed roads are nothing to play around with.

-Well, a few people decided to hijack the announcement to cry that "government" can't decide when we can trick-or-treat, that they're infringing on a religious holiday, then started calling parents who wanted to keep their kids home today stupid for because they heeded the warnings that there's a possible safety issue. Some of them are now refusing to greet trick-or-treaters on Friday.

It was ridiculous! No one was trying to cancel Halloween. It was an emergency situation. There were tree branches still falling today, and a good part of the town still doesn't have power. Sure, it stinks...but better safe than sorry, and we're going have it on Friday instead of today. There was nothing sinister about that. Crazy!

When I heard about many towns in NJ & CT rescheduling Halloween, I thought of this thread.

 

[CandyMandy]

Nobody is telling anyone how to celebrate Halloween. They're just regulating the timeframe in which children can expect their neighbors to give them candy. Hardly the same thing.

Trick or treating (and the attendant handing out of treats, a.k.a, candy) is one of if not the core element of the celebration of Halloween.

To say "regulating" when that can and can't be done -- which by the way implies written legal code, perhaps those like me who are saddened by these "Halloween mandates" should press the local law enforcement bureaucrats for specific copies of the local ordinance -- isn't dictating how to celebrate Halloween is absurd. It is precisely what I and others have described it as:

A flagrant attempt to dictate when a holiday can and can't be celebrated.

But don't worry about me. Worry about the fact it's only a matter of time until someone in one of these "subdivisions" or certain parts of Indiana has had their fill and engages in litigation to push back on these "regulations," in the process teaching a lesson to those who apparently need one about a term called civil liberties.

 

[minniecarousel]

OK - I gotta ask: why dig up this old thread? Halloween is still 2 months away.

Got nuthin' better to do on Labor Day Weekend?

 

[Allison]

OK - I gotta ask: why dig up this old thread? Halloween is still 2 months away.

Got nuthin' better to do on Labor Day Weekend?

Especially responding to someone a year later.

 

[crashbb]

I was totally confused to where in the world Hallowe'en was in a week!

 

[cm8]

I got all excited when I saw C.Ann's name, then I read the date

 

[CandyMandy]

OK - I gotta ask: why dig up this old thread? Halloween is still 2 months away.

Yes, the thread isn't new but the subject is a proverbial, recurring seasonal one, which I can guarantee would have come up again on its own sometime within the next three to four weeks. So rather than starting from scratch, I reasoned it would be useful to have historical context and to save the DIS some bandwith in the process.

And perhaps to remind some that one just never knows when another volley on "the court of the last word" may come flying across the net.