My neighborhood does something a little different. Due to the extremely hilly nature of our subdivision, we have a Halloween Walk on the 31st but during the day whereby parents purchase a bracelet for $2 and on one of our flatter streets, all the people that live in the houses on both sides of that street hang out at the tops of their driveways (many in costumes and with elaborate displays) and hand out candy to all the kids (whom are also in costume). The $2 fee is simply to help reimburse the folks that participate and give their time to do it. Its pretty neat.
Trick or Treating is on October 31.
About 30 years ago a nearby small town did their Trick or Treating on Saturday, October 30th because they didn’t want the kids doing it on Sunday. It was the first year anyone had heard of it being a problem but I was too young to be interested in town councils, etc, so I don’t know the reasoning at the time.
I guess those parents had no issue with Trick or Treating on Sunday because after they had done their thing on Saturday we had van-loads of kids being driven in to our town on Sunday and everyone ran out of candy really early because of the unexpected numbers…
ETA that Trick or Treating hasn’t been moved since…
I grew up in a Reformed church/Calvinist flavor of Protestantism and it wasn’t mentioned/observed at all. I never heard of it until I started learning about Catholicism - and actually, I might have even learned about Day of the Dead (in a predominantly white town) first.
My city has some lame-ass trick-or-treat on Sunday afternoon regardless of date, from 2 to 4 p.m.
My neighborhood disregards the city and has trick-or-treat on Halloween itself, after dark.
They are on the same day this year, but anyone who comes to our door between 2 to 4 in the afternoon will get a puzzled stare. Our neighbors will be more forthright: “You don’t live around here, do you?”
Our town doesn’t do ToT on Sunday night or Wednesday night because of church. Not because it’s evil or whatever (the nutbars who think Halloween is evil don’t do ToT), but because evening services make for scheduling conflicts for a lot of beggars and a lot of candy dispensers. This doesn’t strike me as odd, because where I grew up did the same thing.
We also don’t do it on Friday nights, because it makes for a conflict with the high school football games, which is a new one on me.
Am I the only one here who is a bit befuddled at the idea of towns *scheduling *trick-or-treating? In my neighborhood when I was a child, we just went whenever (on Oct 31, of course). There was no such thing as a scheduled trick-or-treating time. The littler kids would usually go in the early afternoon when they got out of school and the older kids would go closer to dusk & when it was dark out but anyone could go at anytime.
Sunday it is for us! The City of Chicago doesn’t seem to have made any “official” time or date, so we’ll go with the classic. I’m a bit unsure exactly when in the day to do it, however. Generally, trick-or-treating starts a bit after school lets out, around 3:30 or 4, but being a not-school day, I’m unsure. I think we’ll still head out about that time, since we’re ToTing with little ones and want to be home by dark for our Samhain rites.
Heh. Funny thing…we move the Solstices and Equinoxes and Yule and even Beltaine around sometimes to accommodate everyone’s schedule, but Samhain is Samhain and Shall Be on the 31st come Hades or high water! Been that way for 12 years, and it ain’t changing this year (except that being a school night, we’ll be done well before midnight.)
I don’t understand how towns can schedule trick or treating. Can they make it illegal for kids to knock on their neighbors’ doors, especially if those neighbors are expecting them? Can they make it illegal to give treats to visitors? 
Yup.
I think that’s what my husband is planning. We’re hosting a Halloween party on Saturday night or else we would simply leave the house for the evening with all the lights off (the universal signal for “Piss off”).
I want your candy.
I feel strongly that Halloween is the 31st and that is when you trick or treat.
However, last year the town moved it to the 30th and I was cool with that, because we’re in a small college town, and it was a huge game on the night of the 31st, and the town would be pretty empty, so I’m good with it in some limited cases.
No, it’s just a guideline to make planning easier for both the folks giving out candy and the ones going out to get it. This way nobody has to wonder whether to do things Saturday or Sunday or Monday. You know it’s this day at roughly this time, though the time is indeed a fairly rough estimation as there are always early birds and a handful of stragglers. (Some of the early birds are way early–our official ToT time is 6-8, but I see kids out as early as 4:15? Who the hell is home from work to pass out candy that early?)
As others have said, Halloween is October 31st. End of story.
Any kid coming to our house a day earlier or later is out of luck.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I would not have candy in the house, but other than October 31st, that candy is MINE, all MINE! Bwahahaha! Mine! Mine! Mine!
(Hmm, upon re-read, maybe I should lay off the sugar a bit this time of year…)
I grew up in small towns and am very used to the idea of there being a scheduled “trick or treat” day. In my village, which is a crossroads of two highways, that includes a police presence to slow traffic. It’s what I’m used to, and it’s easy and safer.
I was raised Catholic in a very Catholic town, and we (and all my friends, neighbors and classmates, as far as I know) always trick-or-treated on Oct. 31. I never really thought about the religious angle to Halloween, and never guessed that there are people who refuse to celebrate it. However, I now have a friend who doesn’t celebrate it. More candy for me!
I don’t care when other’s trick-or-treat, but if you expect to get some candy, go trick-or-treating on Halloween like everybody else, and stop being such a little shit about it.
There will be a Halloween party in our neighborhood on the 31st, during the afternoon, and we’ll be out trick-or-treating when it gets dark as long as there’s no rain.
I’ve noticed over the past few weeks a lot of churches are having their parties on Saturday so we might go to one of those, as long as it’s a REAL Halloween parties and not one of those “hell house” ordeals. I even saw one where they call it a “Hallow Him Extravaganza!!!” Humbug.
Weasel Stomping Day is on whatever day the populace decides it’s on, not on the day that the elders proclaim it to be.
It’s tradition, that makes it OK.
LAME. I grew up in San Francisco, which is, as you may be aware, also extremely hilly. And you know what? We went trick-or-treating like civilized people. On October 31. AND WE LIKED IT THAT WAY.
That’s how it is around here too. The only time the date is changed though, is when it falls on a Sunday. Religion has nothing to do with it. Nobody schedules anything for a Sunday evening. That’s when people are recuperating from the weekend and getting ready for work and school on Monday. And if you’re working graveyard shift, Sunday night is your Monday morning.
Plus, setting a time gives parents an out. “We can’t start until 5 and we have to be done by 7 – the city says so!” 
Our town (Chicago suburb) has scheduled the “official” T&T time as Sunday 10/31 from 4-7pm. Sounds good to me.