when do you trick or treat?

[lyzziesmom]

I think it is downright stupid to move TOT to a different day

I 1000% agree. What are they going to move next, Valentine's Day? Christmas? Thanksgiving?? Hey I know... let's move my birthday by a few years, I'd really love to be 26 again.

 

[GraysMom]

We always have TOT the Thursday before Halloween, so we had it last night. The schools usually have their Halloween parties the next day, so the kids are just loaded w/sugar .

My parents live more towards central PA (Berwick to be exact) and their town is doing TOT for 2 nights in a row this year . That is just greedy IMHO.

 

[PrincessPAC]

That is just wrong on so many levels. Is there only one church in town, and they have services only on Wednesday nights? What about Sunday morning, isn't that when you're "supposed" to go to church? Those other nights, I thought, are just for people who can't/don't want to go on Sunday mornings. As in OPTIONAL. And who the heck is the MAYOR to tell people when to go to CHURCH? Hello... separation of church and state?

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go off-topic, but this whole thing is just so bizarre.

I know what you're saying. My kids go to church on Sunday mornings, just like most of the other kids in our town. I don't think there's very many that go on Wed. Our mayor is like 80 years old, senile, and has no business being in office - but, no one will run against him and he just kind of does whatever he pleases. He's been in office for like 30 years (maybe longer).

I know what you mean about separation of church and state. I think we're just an old-fashioned town that just goes with the flow. They said TOT is on Tuesday, and we just said OK. There are some people who I'm surprised have not made an issue of it, but I guess it's just not that big of a problem right now (our town has bigger issues to deal with - you know, with the senile mayor and all ).

Personally, I think TOT should be on Halloween, but Tuesday works out better for me anyways (DH is going out of town on Wed.).

I agree with your argument though.

 

[NotUrsula]

Is the church so big, and the town so small, that church can influence moving a holiday? It's not like ToT'ing is done on Sunday morning. Odd!

It's not just one church, it's normally a couple of denominations -- Southern Baptist and Church of God to be more specific. Their Wednesday night service is every bit as mandatory as Sunday morning. In the South, especially, there are lots of towns where almost all the residents will belong to one or the other denomination, thus no major community event is ever scheduled on Sunday morning or Wednesday night. Pentecostals and Christian Scientists also usually have religious obligations on Wednesday nights.

I used to work for a company that had their HQ in northern Alabama. The business required a lot of travel. No overnight business trips were ever scheduled over Wednesday night, because so many HQ employees had to be home that night because of church.

Of course, that they would move Halloween for this is kind of ironic -- a lot of members of those faiths do not celebrate Halloween.

 

[lyzziesmom]

This is all very enlightening. I love how the DIS opens the world... I never knew something like Halloween was celebrated so differently right here in America! I always assumed Halloween was Halloween... dress the kids up, parade them around town to beg for candy (ON Halloween!), let them stuff themselves silly, and then put them to bed and pick out all the good stuff.

 

[helenabear]

I really don't want anyone to take this as disrespectful at all, but can someone tell me why Wednesday is such a big deal? I actually get not doing it on weekends for a slew of reasons (liek for us, no one would be home due to football games), but I am not getting this Wednesday thing at all!

I've gone to church my whole life and never have I had *anything* to do on a Wednesday night there, unless it happened to be a holy day. Do all Protestants really do this?

If Halloween falls on a Thursday (when all my church stuff I do happens to be) we just cancel it for one week at church.

 

[Pooh67_68]

I am in Pa, just 5 miles down the road from the Pocono Raceway. We live in a huge development and trick or treat is Oct. 28th 1-4, it always on a weekend in the afternoon.

 

[lyzziesmom]

I'm Lutheran (Protestant) and we never do stuff on Wednesdays either. If you can't or don't want to go to church on Sunday morning, there are services on Saturday night. Most of the other churches where I live do that too -- and I'm in Kansas, there are a LOT of churches here. There's pretty much a church on every major street corner of all different denominations. No holiday has ever been moved due to church happenings.

Some of the posters report ToT'ing on the Thursday before, no matter what day Halloween falls on. What is the reason for this? I just think it's so weird that a holiday would arbitrarily be moved around, and it's different from one town to another. Do they move other holidays around too? Why Halloween and not Christmas? And how does the town alert people? What about those who don't have kids and just like to hand out candy, or whose kids are yet not school age? Obviously they won't be bringing flyers home from school. What about people like me, who don't get a paper and rarely watch the local news? I would be surprised as all get-out to have costumed kids on my porch a full week before Halloween, I'd be thinking there's something wrong with them! Or more likely, I wouldn't be home and then I'd send my kids out a week too "late" on real Halloween, and then what?

BTW helenabear -- I just love that little baby animation in your signature. I've been mesmerized by watching it for the past 5 minutes!

 

[Tinkerbell2002]

We have always trick or treated on Halloween. We moved to PA not to long ago and my mil (she lives here too) asked me what night trick or treat was. I said Wednesday since it is Halloween. Now, I am starting to hope that we are not the only ones out begging for candy on Halloween. That'll be embarassing. I wonder how you even find out if Trick or treat is on a different night.
How strange!

 

[lyzziesmom]

I am in Pa, just 5 miles down the road from the Pocono Raceway. We live in a huge development and trick or tread is Oct. 28th 1-4, it always on a weekend in the afternoon.

Whoa, from 1-4?? That's weird too! I can't imagine trick or treating in the middle of the day.

Maybe I'm just getting old and set in my ways.

 

[helenabear]

I'm Lutheran (Protestant) and we never do stuff on Wednesdays either. If you can't or don't want to go to church on Sunday morning, there are services on Saturday night. Most of the other churches where I live do that too -- and I'm in Kansas, there are a LOT of churches here. There's pretty much a church on every major street corner of all different denominations. No holiday has ever been moved due to church happenings.

Some of the posters report ToT'ing on the Thursday before, no matter what day Halloween falls on. What is the reason for this? I just think it's so weird that a holiday would arbitrarily be moved around, and it's different from one town to another. Do they move other holidays around too? Why Halloween and not Christmas? And how does the town alert people? What about those who don't have kids and just like to hand out candy, or whose kids are yet not school age? Obviously they won't be bringing flyers home from school. What about people like me, who don't get a paper and rarely watch the local news? I would be surprised as all get-out to have costumed kids on my porch a full week before Halloween, I'd be thinking there's something wrong with them! Or more likely, I wouldn't be home and then I'd send my kids out a week too "late" on real Halloween, and then what?

BTW helenabear -- I just love that little baby animation in your signature. I've been mesmerized by watching it for the past 5 minutes!

Thanks, I was just curious. Life long Catholic here. We have 1 Sat service and 4 Sunday services. And then we have daily chapel too for those who want (a more low key service for us). So I was very confused since so many were saying that church got in the way.

Glad you like that baby in my sig. It's how I "display" pics of my ongoing pregnancy.

As I said in a PP our city actually will not allow it on a weekend night for football and safety reasons. Being #15 for largest city in the USA I kind of get it. On Saturdays you run into drunks a lot thanks to college and HS football is so huge here that no one is home on Friday nights to really want to do it. So our local paper just has a list of all of the surounding cities and when they are "scheduled". If Halloween falls on a Friday-Sunday they will do it the Thursday before. If it falls on any other day of the week, you do it the day of. Some of the more remote towns (1 hour out of the city) will still do it Halloween no matter what. So some years you get two tries if you want to drive far I don't remember what my small town did, but I actaully understand it since we are dealing with bigger cities here and why they feel the need to move. It's all about safety for children the claim.

 

[java]

I am . We are just over the river in NJ and I have friends in PA that were complaining about this. I had never heard of "other day" holidays.
I would just trick or treat on Halloween.

 

[sha_lyn]

And the one who said they moved it because of church?? That makes no sense. Is the church so big, and the town so small, that church can influence moving a holiday?

Around here most schools don't give homework on Wednesday because of Church.

It's not just one church, it's normally a couple of denominations -- Southern Baptist and Church of God to be more specific. Their Wednesday night service is every bit as mandatory as Sunday morning. In the South, especially, there are lots of towns where almost all the residents will belong to one or the other denomination, thus no major community event is ever scheduled on Sunday morning or Wednesday night. Pentecostals and Christian Scientists also usually have religious obligations on Wednesday nights.

Yep.... add into that independant fundemental Baptist and church of Christ too

 

[daisyduck123]

We always trick or treat on Halloween.
I've never heard of doing it on a different day (before this thread anyway!)

 

[disneytraveler]

On the 31st in my town

 

[jam217]

Another Pa person and I've lived in this area (Allentown) for over 40 years and we've always trick or treated on the Friday night before Halloween. The trick or treat nights are listed in our daily paper.

 

[Mkrop]

Another Pa person and I've lived in this area (Allentown) for over 40 years and we've always trick or treated on the Friday night before Halloween. The trick or treat nights are listed in our daily paper.

so can you TOT tonight or is raining there?

 

[jam217]

yes, it's pouring here but trick or treat is still a go

 

[bigbabyblues]

Trick or Treat here is always the Thursday before Halloween. It's really dumb, if Halloween is on Thursday, then ToT is on Thursday the 24th. DH has lived here all his life, and MIL said it's always been that way.

 

[mkcp91]

Lancaster County, PA checking in here! We have Trick or Treat on the 31st this year and the county sets the hours - from 6 to 8. The only time I remember TOT being a different day was when it fell on a Sunday (I think it was 2004), then they changed it to Friday night.

Other nearby counties are so crazy with their Trick or Treat times that they have to publish a schedule:

http://www.whptv.com/content/linksinfo/story.aspx?content_id=6d545c2b-4fed-40d1-9cda-1dfd36aad211


As for the Wednesday thing, I live in the heart of Amish Country and many businesses and stores close early on Wednesday because it is church night. My son's basketball won't schedule any practices on Wednesdays either. It's not just one church or denomination - it's many. But we are still having Trick or Treat on Wednesday so I just don't know!