Here in our little corner of the world our town announced that Halloween would be celebrated on Saturday and that Trick or Treating was to take place from 5-8.
When I read these rules I felt split, in some ways I really liked the idea of having a set day and time, but at the same time it felt a bit over bearing. Where I grew up, there was no set time for trick or treating. The tradition of handing out candy started sometime around sunset and when you were tired you went home and turned off your porch light.
My parents would get trick or treaters soon after school got out and some late starters would still be showing up after 10pm for a treat. I mean if your porch light was on, it was game on. But as a parent with a child who likes a structured bedtime, I can appreciate the organization that this town we moved to goes with. I’ve also been reading on my hometown’s Facebook page the confusing posts of who’s passing out candy on Saturday or Sunday this year.
I guess ideally a town should pick a specific day so kids don’t have to walk as far to fill their bags? But I still don’t know how I feel about the strict time frame.
What did your town do this year? Does your family do trick or treating? I’m curious, is Halloween even celebrated in your country? Let me know below 🎃
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It’s interesting because I feel strongly that they shouldn’t move the day, but that the time is important.
My entire life the time of trick or treating has been managed. From Milan to Becker to Minneapolis to Stockbridge to Lansing. I think it serves the purpose of consolidation and consistency while helping with a little bit of civic management. We planned routes around where to start and how to get home exactly when we had to be home. 🤣
Why don’t I like the day change? Exactly what you pointed out, it leads to confusion. People who don’t follow social media, etc might not know to be ready for Saturday, and we always have our porch light on and turned it off last night at 8pm to signify the end of a great night!
Either way, I’m glad to hear you all had fun!
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I love your perspective and the civic management makes sense. That’s so funny how you would plan your route to be back home just in time 😂 I never thought to do that, because obviously I didn’t have that concern but I love it.
I can get behind not moving the day for those who don’t use social media. It didn’t bother me, but I did find it a bit odd. So I can be team Oct. 31st no matter what 🎃
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Trick or treating is as popular as ever across Canada. Every jurisdiction I know about (from my spread-our family and FB postings of dressed-up kids) celebrated on the 31st. We didn’t get too many trick-or-treaters at our house, which pleased my husband no end because he now has a bowl of peanut butter cups all to himself! 😊🎃
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Haha I really can’t blame your husband, I would be quite pleased with a bowl of peanut butter cups too!
My family is spread across the US and celebrating either the 30th or 31st was very split this year 🧐
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I can understand why they moved the day due to the pandemic but I do feel there is something authentic about keeping it on the day of and letting it run a little later into the night, as long as the porch lights are on you said.
We’re lucky our city ran it at the same time and day and we had quite a decent turnout of kids. Made my day to see kids and families in costumes out trick or treating.
Hope you all had a good time. Your costumes are great!
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Thanks Ab, my boys picked out my costume this year 😅
That’s great that you guys had a good turn out, it was fun seeing all the costumes this year. My favorite trick or treaters were 2 teenage boys who bashfully asked if they could touch our inflatable dinosaur, Halloween decoration on our lawn 🤣
Sure kids, go touch the giant pirate, t-Rex, inflatable by our front door. All the little kids had been doing the same thing all evening.
I agree, keeping it on its original day and letting it run later if porch lights are on feels more authentic.
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I love that teens are still trick or treating. And that they were so polite about the donosaur!
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I love seeing teenagers trick or treating too. I don’t know where the negativity around teens trick or treating came from. I’d rather them be doing that then getting into actual trouble or staying in and missing out on socializing with their communities.
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For sure!
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Whaaaat I have never heard of managed Halloween, lol, nor celebrating it on any other day than Halloween. That seems crazy to me and indeed overbearing. It’d be enough to make me just not bother as a kid!
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Only thing flexible date-wise is fireworks.
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LOL, right? It was far too managed and structured. My FIL told me that when he was growing up, his town would sound the tornado siren when trick or treating was suppose to start and then the town would sound the siren again when it was suppose to be over… And then the police cars would start patrolling. Like what? That sounds a bit Hitler to me… but ok?
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WHAT THE…you are kidding me!!??
Sadly this is America and I know that you are not 😭😭😭😆. Isn’t that just America in a nutshell? Hahaha.
That’s an anecdote and three quarters. Bloody hell.
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Haha exactly! This basically summed up the US 🤪
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More government overreach, elections have consequences
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That’s true.
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Hi dear, I hope you all had a happy Halloween, you guys looks fantastic with those customs!!
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Thank you, I hope you had a fun and relaxing holiday as well 😊
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Celebrating Halloween on a night other than Halloween is the exact sort of thing that would set me off and cause incessant complaining to innocent parties who have no control over the situation. Fortunately for my wife and kids, Gettysburg celebrated on the 31st. Time-wise, like your son, I like to have a predictable boundary so things don’t drag out too long. We always torch a couple of pumpkins with kerosene and the burn time is only about 50 minutes. If we start too early, they’re smoldering (rather than flaming) while trick or treaters are still coming by.
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I’m glad to hear that you got to celebrate Halloween on its rightful day of existence 😄 and no one, including you had to be frustrated by an odd change of days. Torching pumpkins sounds fun!
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