Mike: Tell Me I’m Wrong, we should move Halloween
Nov 4, 2019, 10:32 PM | Updated: Oct 1, 2024, 11:30 am
Kids trick-or-treat on Oct. 31st -- also known as Halloween. (MyNorthwest)
(MyNorthwest)
With Halloween over, we now sit and wait – and plan – for Thanksgiving. As always, it’s the fourth Thursday in November. It’s been so since President Lincoln declared “Harvest Day” (it’s original name) as final Thursday of this month.
And we’re fine with that, right? Even with its status as a federal holiday – one that many people mark as their favorite – we’re fine with it falling on a different date from year to year.
We know how to plan because we can all count to four.
So why not do the same for Halloween?
Yes, I know Halloween is pegged to October 31. And yes, I know why. It started with an ancient Celtic festival. Then in the eighth century A.D., Pope Gregory III declared that November 1 would be the day to honor saints in the form of All Saints Day.
The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve and later Halloween.
But in the modern United States, Halloween mostly has lost its religious trappings. It’s about candy, trick-or-treating, costumes and parties.
So why not just make it the fourth Saturday of October?
There are a few great reasons:
— given its distant connection to the date, the 31st matters less all of the time;
— children would be safer trick-or-treating on a weekend night without commuters out and without parents racing to get home from work to take their own children out;
— party planning gets way easier;
— most important, we would not be forced to deal with the epic weekday traffic like we had last Thursday when parents’ rushing home ran headlong into commuter jams. (Don’t believe me? Just as KIRO Radio’s Tracy Taylor.)
Put simply, we are long past needing Halloween to fall on the 31st. We roll the date for Thanksgiving. We can do it for All Hallows Eve, too.
Let’s change it. Tell me why I’m wrong in the comments section below.
“Tell Me I’m Wrong” airs every day on the Candy, Mike and Todd Show at 3:30. The Candy, Mike and Todd Show airs every weekday afternoon from 3-7 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
