Something just struck me as odd, and I’m curious if this sort of thing happens anywhere else in the U.S.
In Salt Lake City, it is generally accepted this year that all Halloween Trick or Treating will be done on Saturday night (the 30th). For practical reasons (no school the next day) but also undoubtedly for religious reasons (they don’t move any other school-night Halloweens back to Saturdays or Fridays!).
I didn’t think much about this (I don’t have kids and intend to hide from the Trick or Treaters whatever night they come), but I remember now that all but one 4th of July fireworks displays around the city this year were held on Saturday (the 3rd) night this year, rather than Sunday (the 4th). This was definitely a religious decision.
I’m just wondering if any other communities out there experience this “bending” of holiday days due to obvious religious reasons. I’m not saying that it’s the MORMONS doing this, because the articles in the papers make a point of quoting many different religious people who are all for this “bending” for Halloween. But certainly the SLC area is very Mormon-centric, and the majority rules around here.
Well Brando, I wouldn’t kid yourself too much about the other religions playing a part. I have never heard of another religion sucessfully lobbying to change the day of holiday activities so it did not coincide with a sunday (or other holy day) in any other state.
The closest i could think of is the religions where non-secular holidays aren’t observed at all.
I should clarify that it’s not that the holiday was CHANGED, it’s just the general thought/agreement that Trick or Treaters will be out Saturday. There still might be some on Sunday. It’s not illegal or anything.
The fourth of July thing is much more ominous, in my opinion.
I knew what you meant, I just used to live in Utah, and they have a habit of changing any non-church related activity to saturdays if it happens to fall on a sunday. No where else does this that i have ever seen.
Around here, trick-or-treating never falls on Halloween, whether it’s on Sunday or not. I’m not sure if this helps you, though. If Christmas were on Sunday, would they celebrate it on Saturday?
No, Christmas would still be on Sunday. It tends to be the “little” holidays that get bent. But, the 4th of July isn’t little, I don’t think. That’s what makes me nervous.
What do you expect from a state where the 24th of July (“Pioneer Day”–when the Mormons arrived) is MUCH MUCH MUCH bigger than the 4th of July? I even get the 24th off from work!
City council in St. John’s, Nfld., tried to change trick-or-treat from Halloween Sunday to Halloweeneen Saturday. Then they realized a) there’d be two lots of kids, often the same kids, making the rounds on each night, and b) they had no legal authority to do it. So they changed it back.
It was apparently instigated by a multi-denominational committee, which apparently didn’t ask members of the Seventh-Day Adventist, or Jewish (both of them) communities about moving “Devil’s Night” out of one person’s sabbath and into anothers. The Wiccans weren’t pleased about being lumped in as “Satanists” either.
There was a big article in the paper this morning for the Washington DC area. It seems one county declared/suggested that Saturday be Hallowe’en for trick-or-treating-purposes, rather than Sunday. The reason had to do with it being a school night, and the worry that too many kids would have tummy aches the next day. No religious angle that I could see.
Boy did they hear about it. Phone calls, "How dare you take it upon yourself to move a holiday!: Etc… No other county tried to change things, and as far as I can tell, I expect the little tykes on Sunday.
I can tell you that at least here in my neck of the woods, moving Halloween to Saturday has nothing to do with Mormons. (We don’t have an overwhelming numbers of Mormons here. Snake-handling, Southern Baptists and Pentacostals, but not many Mormons.) Most of the city officials like to say it’s because of the next day being a school day and all. However, as far back as I can remember, my city has never moved Halloween from say, Wednesday to Friday to alleviate that same problem.
So what is the real answer? Factually, I cannot say for certain. Although I will leave you with the thought that this time of year, several churches in my area hold what is known as “Judgement House”, in lieu of the standard haunted house and encourage kids to not go trick-or-treating but to come to the Judgement House instead. For those of you who are not familiar with this concept, churches set up a haunted house-type structure (usually in the Fellowship Hall or something) but instead of having ghouls and ghosts, they show various “ghastly” scenarios of what can happen to you if you don’t have Jesus in your life. One room will have a teenage girl crying because she had sex with her boyfriend (“I thought he loved me. He said we’d be together forever.”) and now she is, gasp, pregnant and ruined forever. Another room will show drug addicts with no friends, no family, no life, etc. But my favorite room is always the one that shows how people will lure you into becoming a pawn of Satan by claiming they are “Buddhist” or “Hindu” or “Wiccan” or even “Unitarian”!!! So, I leave it to everyone’s imagination as to why Halloween is NEVER celebrated on Sunday in my area!
Born O.K. the first time…
If you are born again, do you have two belly buttons?
All I know is where I live I could end up with them any one of three different nights. I wish all the towns would make up their minds and set the same date.
Gee, what happened all those years Halloween fell on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday?
I was led to believe all those were school nights, too.
It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either.
—Mark Twain