I vaguely remember this happening when I was a child, and some folks in the neighborhood were quite adamant about not handing out candy.
We have a simple rule with my kids, “No Porch Light, No Candy.” We only hit those houses with lit porch lights.
If you have religious objections to ToT on a Sunday, fine, don’t go. But don’t try to move it a day. There’s plenty of people (like me) who don’t care one way or the other what day Halloween falls on.
If I were still young enough to go trick or treating, I’d be behind this all the way. Sunday comes, you go out trick or treating. Then, on Monday, you go out again and hit all the houses that didn’t want to do it on Sunday.
On second thought, though, the sort of people who would refuse to celebrate Halloween on a Sunday are probably the same bastards who gave out pennies instead of candy. Hmm. Well, that’s what the eggs are for.
Good lord…you still have trick or treat on Halloween night?! I don’t think my hometown has done it on the 31st for at least 15 years. It’s usually the Wednesday or Thursday night before Halloween.
What complete and utter idiots those people mentioned in the OP’s link are. Just morons, the lot of 'em.
If you, for whatever misguided religious reasons you may have, don’t wish to celebrate Halloween, then good for you. Have the fuck at it, or not, as the case may be. If, as a rule, you do celebrate Halloween and you’re getting all up in arms because some want to trick or treat <gasp> on the day it falls on you, sir or madam, are a fucking idiot.
Sandra Hulsey of Greenville, Ga, here’s your sign, ya moron.
I’ve never heard of anyone trick-or-treating on the 29th before & I’ve lived here most of my life. It’s always been on Halloween night, this year same as always. I haven’t heard anyone fussing about it being on a Sunday yet, either.
AFAIK most people who have trouble with trick-or-treating as a Sabbath activity figure out something else to do and keep the kids happy–something in the way of a private event. My church, for example, is holding a huge trunk-or-treat on the 30th; everyone drives to a parking lot, decorates their open trunk in a suitably scary manner, and the costumed kids go from car to car gathering as much loot as they can stagger with. Games and prizes too! Those who have no problem with trick-or-treating on a Sunday can then do so if they want to, while the stricter families stay at home munching candy and perhaps giving out treats as well. It’s up to the individual family that way, but everyone gets something.
I can quite see the problem myself; Halloween is a huge deal for kids and I loved ToTing (OK, I still do). But, ‘devil’ stuff aside, is it an appropriate activity for a family that feels strongly about the Sabbath? If you feel that spending money, eating out, working, playing sports, and watching TV/movies are not OK for the Sabbath, what do you do with a beloved but not-exactly-reverent activity like trick-or-treating that falls on the wrong day?
(For myself, we’re going to the trunk-or-treat and then going out to our close neighbors on the 31st. I love Halloween as a neighborly community event and have no problem taking my kids to see a few friends. But I would feel weird about trekking through the whole neighborhood in search of infinite amounts of candy. Call me wishy-washy, I guess.)
BTW, for “strict Sabbath-keepers,” may I encourage you to contact cmkeller or zev_steinhart for the proper rules on really keeping the Sabbath? If you’re going to do it at all, do it righr! :rolleyes: (BTW, that would be from sundown Friday…)
On the other hand, there’s nothing out of line with celebrating the weekly feast of the Resurrection in the morning, and then letting the kids go out for some costumed fun and treat-collection that night.
“Devil’s day,” my Anglican ass! Dollars to donuts she can’t tell you either of the contributing factors to the present Hallowe’en celebration!
But it’s okay to let your children celebrate the devil on the following Monday? What the hell kind of sense does that make? To hell with the child, now I’m all confused!
My neighborhood does the trick or treating on the Saturday preceding Halloween. It’s not for any religious reason. The parents don’t want kids out late and then gorging themselves on candy on a school night.
I don’t get the logic of the group in the OP. If you think it’s a devil’s night, why celebrate it at all regardless of whether it’s on a Sunday? You’d still be flat out silly in my opinion–but at least you’d be consistent.
Actually, I did hear a DJ on the radio asking if Trick or Treating could possibly be done on Saturday this year, but for a different reason. You see, on Halloween, the Steelers play New England at 4:30. Now, if the Steelers have a 5 and 1 record at that point and New England’s still undefeated, the game could have rather important ramifications and since Trick or Treating tends to start around 6:00 around here, you can see the poor hard core Steeler fan’s dilemma.
Me, I’ll be curious to see what the sermon’s like at my new church on Halloween, then I’ll probably go over to a Wiccan friend of mine’s house to hand out candy. Yep, you read that right. The person handing out candy at the home of a real witch on Halloween will be a Christian. Oh, and one quick note for the pedantic: the term for a male practictioner of Wicca really is “witch” not warlock.
I can’t stomach Christians who insist that Halloween has anything to do with their devil. I would pit them independent of this thread, but I’m sure it’s been done.
Polycarp:All Hallows Eve (5th century Celtic) = bonfires, cold houses, vigilance for demons and occasional sacrifices of humans thought already to be possessed and … what’s the other?
The irony in that situation is Titanic – just what I’d expect from you, Sis! Give Bill a hug for me!
Implicit in the name – it’s the Eve of All Saints Day, to be celebrated with feasts and parties and general merrymaking. Insofar as I can make any sense out of miscellaneous traditions never well documented, the two events seem to have converged on the cross-quarter date of 10/31-11/1, neither being ancestral to the other and both contributing to the traditions associated with the day.
And this, for Siege and Steve Wright"
Why can’t people do what they want, or not do what they don’t want, and be left alone? It seems every no life, no good, miserable busybody just has to lord it over everyone else. To Sandra Hulsey of Greenville, Ga and anyone like her, I say “Mind your own business”.
Oh, and one quick note for the pedantic: the term for a male practictioner of Wicca really is “witch” not warlock.