How do you move Trick or Treating?!?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Mods - please don’t move this to the Boo forum - there’s larger issues here, I think.

So, it’s Halloween, and it’s going to rain. Not thunder and lighting, not tornados, but rain. It’s pretty warm here, not freezing rain, just rain. And three towns in our area have moved trick or treating to tomorrow night. I’m very uncomfortable with this…

First, I don’t recall anywhere in the Constitution or the Town Charter that gives the government control over our holidays. That doesn’t bug me as much, but it seems weird to me. They don’t tell us we can’t have Christmas on the 25th because of snow, so…

Second - I am appalled by the parents who are demanding this change take place. It’s all about children’s “safety” of course, but I can’t figure what is unsafe about trick or treating in the rain. There are the usual idiots who say they’ll get sick, but there’s others who are just interested in some nebulous “safety”

My larger concern about this how this generation is going to turn out. All of the sharp corners are being molded into round ones, and I don’t think that’s a good thing. Not just because I think kids very much need to make mistakes in order to become whole humans, but because there is so much being missed out on in terms of experience. Experiences bring joy and creativity, and expand horizons. There’s something so human and visceral about running around in a warm fall rain, splashing in puddles and just being wet - it’s awesome because its the opposite of being good and dry. Somehow it’s very freeing for your mind to do stuff once in a while that is the opposite of what you should do, and something like this is a safe way to get that feeling of freedom.

I think a lot of it has to do with people having children so late in life. As you grow older, you get more conservative (I don’t mean that politically) and you get more boring in a lot of ways. Things you would do as a younger person, like playing in the rain, you would never do now, because you do a calculation of how much trouble it is with wet shoes and wet clothes and getting kids to undress in the bathtub and what if they get cold, etc., and you just decide that those very practical troubles trump the moments of pure awesome that come with it.

I’m worried, because I fear for what philosophy and art will be when they grow up. It might be rather boring, as this generation of bubble wrapped kids take over. Or it might be too far the other direction, as they rebel mightily against their stodgy, lame childhood. I honestly hope for the second option, because at least they will get to be alive at some point.

2

Yeah, how dare they?!!

This is a ridiculous OP. You’re reading entirely too much into the situation, and leaping to outlandish conclusions about “this generation”. It was a bunch of parents who thought “Hey, wouldn’t Trick or Treating be a lot more fun for *every single person involved *if it weren’t raining? Since it would be just as easy why don’t we do it tomorrow night?”

You must very very hard up for things to get angry about.

3

Last year there was a hurricane and live wires down all over the place. Halloween was cancelled or moved.

The year before it was Snowtober and live wires down all over the place. Halloween was cancelled or moved.

A little rain? Wimps.

4

Rain is an extremely common factor in vehicle/pedestrian accidents, and having a bunch of kids mixing with traffic in the rain increases the risk of the kind of “being alive” that results in “being dead.”

I’m no fan of “won’t someone think of the children,” but in this case they actually are thinking of the children.

You’re way, way, overreacting. Civilization will not fall because of this.

5

This isn’t exactly a new trend.

Strictly Germ-proof by Arthur Guiterman

Halloween and Trick-or-Treating has changed over the many years it has been celebrated, and no doubt it will change again. I am not certain how much more circumspected it can become given the parental clime of the times, so I imagine that in another few years societal norms will include some new wrinkle in the old formula. Adults have wrested the holiday from the grasping and sticky fingers of the trick-or-treaters and transformed it into some sort of autumnal Bacchanalia. Not that I have any truck with this change. It is quite amusing, in fact, but the children have been left holding a bag of rocks on this one.

I agree with most of your sentiments regarding this topic. Thanks for bringing it up.

*I see that it is going to rain this evening, so I suppose I should forage for… sustenance… now. They never expect you to show up in the daylight.
*

6

You seem tense, OP. Maybe you should lay off the Snickers for a while.

7

I’m on board with the OP. Wimpifying kids is really lame.

8

I grew up in Wisconsin and even back in the 70s they were doing Trick or Treat on the weekend during daylight hours. Kind of lame.
I have to admit I prefer the 31st evening hours better where I live now. Glad my kid gets to experience that.

9

Wow, what time do you guys start? Since they moved the end of DST to November, we always have to begin during daylight hours.

10

I’m not angry so much as disturbed. Everyone gets to raise their kids however they want, and that’s fine, but now that’s spilled over into everyone’s else life. I know several people who’s kids won’t get to trick or treat, mine included - I have an appointment with a client at 6pm tomorrow, my cousin and his wife work tomorrow after specifically taking Halloween off, etc. So no, it’s not “more fun” nor is it “just as easy”. It’s now impossible, and all because they’re worried about kids getting wet?

And in the larger view, these are the kinds of things that make memories. “Remember that Halloween it was raining, and my clown makeup looked like zombie makeup by the end of the night?” Those things are real, and vibrant, and I don’t see how actively trying to prevent them is a good thing if the cost is that someone gets a little wet. Get a poncho for crying out loud - this is for the kids, not the grown ups.

11

I never quite understood how towns “decided” to move things. The town never decided any such thing where I lived. Then again, kids usually had so much candy by the end of their own housing development that there was really no reason to go anywhere else. Having a town with many such developments and you can see why the town never bothered when each development was its own little world.

It outraged me as a kid to hear about other parents wringing their hands about taking their kids out as it was getting dark. Going out after dark was half the whole point of trick or treating to me! I felt that kids who were forced to trick or treat at 3pm were being denied the true spirit of Halloween. Such is the anger of kiddies. :smiley:

Why don’t you just go trick or treating whenever the hell you want anyway? Why do you have to listen to the town? If you knock on someone’s door are they really going to turn you away because it’s not the town-mandated time?

12

Our town just moved it because of the rain. Of course they can’t really get the news out, they admit, so in the press release they are saying they discourage, but allow it, tonight, and encourage everyone to go out tomorrow.

So two nights. But none of the neighboring towns are doing it, so our neighborhood, which already has people drive van loads of kids and dump them, will get van loads of kids from the neighboring towns, too.

And I have to agree with a lot of what the OP says. Hurricane? Yeah postpone it. Rain? Forget it. So the kids get wet. I got wet, or snowed on, or whatever when I was little. And, yes, a snowsuit or rain jacket over the costume hides it. But, if they are so small that the rain will hurt them, they shouldn’t be doing a marathon three-hour session anyhow. Take them to a couple of houses and that should be enough.

13

I have never lived anywhere that the government had a say over when you Trick or Treat. I don’t even know how you would enforce that. I mean, do you give citations to the kids who go out anyway? Do you write up the people who still pass out candy? Does the whole town just willingly comply with the change?

14

I don’t know. I guess the sheeple just go along with it. I wish I did, because as I said, my kid doesn’t get to trick or treat this year because of this. I’m saucy enough that I would just start knocking on doors tonight, but I don’t want my son to feel embarrassed or sad if people answer empty handed.

And just buying him a bag of candy is not the same - candy isn’t the point of it. It’s about the excitement of getting dressed up in a costume and running around the neighborhood and collecting it and dumping out the bag on the ground and grousing over the cheap tootsie rolls, and knowing in your heart that you have CANDY! For DAYS!

But, really, I’m the monster for wanting kids to get wet, I guess.

15

It’s good for a place to set a specific night for trick-or-treating, so you can be ready.

The problem around here is that they won’t have it on Friday night because of football, on Saturday because “the drunks are out and it’s dangerous”, or on Sunday or Wednesday because Jesus. (Wednesday night church is still a big thing here.) So unless the 31st falls on a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday, it happens on a different night.

16

Nobody gets a citation or anything like that, but people aren’t prepared. In the places ive lived (towns in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin) it usually takes place on Halloween night no matter what the day of the week, and if the town has changed the time or date for some unusual reason the kids will figure it out after the third house that says, “That was last night.” Or “We don’t have any candy.” All the lights off up and down the street would be a clue, too.

17

I’m just wondering in what crazy world people don’t have candy already before Halloween itself, in preparation for Halloween as per normal. If the date is moved to a later one, it’s not like the candy pops back out of existence until November 2nd or whatever comes around.

Just go out and do stuff when you want. They have the candy - they’ve had it since the 28th or 29th I’m sure, if not earlier. They’re sitting in their cozy houses so it’s not like the rain is a deterrent for their side of the equation.

18

I’ve heard nothing here about moving it but it wouldn’t bother me if it was moved a day. Trick or Treating is more fun when not covered in cold rain.

I’m more bothered (such as it is) by towns with T&T hours like “2:00 until 5:00” as though the families don’t have school or work.

19

Do they set hours like that on a school day? I have heard of towns that do that on Saturday or Sunday, but if they do it on a school day that’s rough.

I really think it may have run its course and it’s time to stop.

20

They’re not changing the date of any holiday, they are changing the date of a coordinated community-wide event that needs to be scheduled to make it work.

You can’t just put your trash out any day, right? They tell you to put it out a certain day and the people will be by to pick it up. If you put it out any other day it just sits there. Sometimes they need to change trash pickup day, and everyone manages to get the message. How can they do it? They just do it!

They are telling you what day everyone will be home from 6-8 with their candy ready, and what day everyone can go out from 6-8 and collect candy. If it’s not coordinated, there will be people waiting to give candy when no one comes and people trying to collect candy and no one’s there to give it.