HAUNTED HOUSES IN THE SCV TO OPEN
A Canyon Country resident is leading a campaign to move Halloween from whichever day of the week to land on Oct. 31 and turn it into a weekend holiday.
“It actually came about last year, when Halloween was on a Tuesday,” said the petition’s creator, Koren Young. “It was pretty whack.”
In discussions with friends, neighbors and local teachers, Young developed the idea after considering how a night out for Halloween would affect children and adults the next morning. Those who attended Halloween parties either would leave early or have to cope with the hangover the following day, while children staying up late after eating lots of sugar would be tired the next day, he said.
By moving Halloween to the last Saturday in October, adults will be able to attend parties or tick-or-treat with their kids without needing to call off work, while children can stay up late and not have to worry about getting up early for the school the next day, according to Young’s petition on change.org.
“Halloween’s important for the kids but it’s also a big deal for the adults that like to go out and party until the early hours of the morning,” said Young in a video promoting the change. “And going to work on Nov. 1 is hell for everybody.”
As of Friday evening, Young’s petition has collected over 200 signatures.
Young, who works in video production, said he’s spent the last fourth months growing the “Halloweekend USA” campaign on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Young said the response from fellow SCV residents has been positive, with some pushback
“I have a friend who works in special effects makeup. He’s a big Halloween fan,” he said. “But he doesn’t support it. Other people I’ve talked with see it more for the traditional, spiritual and religious background for leaving it (on Oct. 31). The resistance is coming from the fear of a change.”
Young also cites in his petition the precedent for a moving a holiday to a particular day. Thanksgiving was moved to the fourth Thursday of November by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, after the concern emerged that a shorter Christmas season would hurt the economy in the decade following the Great Depression, according to the National Archives.
Federally recognized holidays are also static on the particular days in which they are observed, but major holidays such as Independence Day, Christmas Day and New Years Day fall on any day of the week.
Young is not alone in suggesting Halloween be moved. The Halloween Industry Association, a nonprofit trade organization, has organized a similar petition with over 14,500 signatures as of Friday evening. Also known as the Halloween and Costume Association, they plan to give the petition to President Donald Trump to make the change legal.