LEAVE HALLOWEEN ALONE!!!

[Pumpkin_Head]

Hi Folks:

Please pardon my yelling in the title, and the extra large font, but something is going on that has got me quite upset. It's all over facebook and my news feed. It seems that some group or organization is getting up a petition to change the date of Halloween from October 31st to the last Saturday in October. THAT STINKS!!.......and I'll tell you why. Halloween is a TRADITION that is beloved by millions and has always been celebrated on October 31st. It's been on the last day of October, and is part of a 3 day tradition that dates back to the druids, the pagan tradition and even Catholic tradition for many centuries, and should be treated with respect, be you Wiccan, Christian or Pagan. Through out my 59 years, Halloween on October 31st has held a very special place in my heart, and every year as far back as I can remember, when the pumpkins were out for sale, and the Halloween decorations were going up at all the stores and homes, it was time to get ready for Trick or Treat. It was time to start thinking about what costume to wear, what kind of a face I wanted on my jack o'lantern, and what scary movie was going to be on tv that day.

I will never understand why the traditions I know and loved, and has been known and loved for so many for probably over 1000 years, has to be changed to fit into some new-fangled agenda. Haven't we lost enough in the name of so called "progress?" Isn't it bad enough they cut back on ToT so much that most of the fun has been taken out of it? How about the fact that ToT is watered down because they don't go back to standard time until after Halloween, so there's no ToT after dark. When I was a kid, Halloween, October 31st, was one of the few and far between nights I was permitted to be out after dark during the school year. Being outside on Halloween night, seeing the glow of all the jack o'lanterns in windows, going to the Mt. Greenwood Park Halloween party then going home and watching a horror movie was what made Halloween as magical as it was. Now a days, it seems that it's being changed around, watered down, and turned into something totally different and for the worse, and all in the name of what some like to call "progress."

So I beg you all, with all my heart, DON'T sign that petition. Let's keep Halloween where it belongs on the calendar. The 31st of October. Let's give the children of today an OLD tradition to know and love, and to value. I know that in this day and age of cell phones, the internet, electric cars and legalized marijuana, it's easy for people, especially young people to want to try out new things, but all new things are true "progress." So, if you see that petition floating around on social media, DON'T SIGN, and post a comment against it. I'm begging you. Please, save out beloved tradition.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I agree with you enthusiastically, Mike, but since I don't do social media, I won't be much help. I am happy I live in a place where TOT is not regulated. I am also happy we live so near the eastern edge of the Central Time Zone that we are still dark for TOT even though they extended daylight saving time (which I generally dislike, except for the summer months). DST makes the early mornings dark and treacherous for the many, many people who must get up for work and school at that time of day during the fall, winter, and early spring.

Since Halloween has never been a holiday recognized by the government, I really believe its celebration should be regulated by communities, if at all. In my Mississippi childhood, for example, it was generally accepted that anytime it fell on a Sunday, TOT would happen on Saturday. Nowadays it is often celebrated on Sunday, at least in Tennessee.

I will be sad if people ever "officially" shift door-to-door TOT to the last Saturday in October, though our community celebrations already do that, which is fine with me (I mean, our parks & rec dept holds its haunted attraction on that last weekend, along with a kind of carnival). When my kids were growing up, I regarded that as a kind of extension of the season. Some parents let the community celebration do it for their kids and skip TOT, which is their choice. I love it all. If I had been forced to choose between the carnival and TOT, I would have chosen TOT for my kids, but I'm glad I didn't have to choose.

No matter what people decide, I will always celebrate Halloween on the 31rst.

[Pumpkin_Head]

The government may not officially recognize Halloween, but they do recognize Columbus Day, and as far as I can see, nobody ever celebrates Columbus Day. In fact, the college where I worked refused to recognize Christopher Columbus or his holiday in October. I was thinking that Halloween (on Oct 31st) should be the government recognized legal holiday and get rid of Columbus Day all together. I never see any Columbus Day decorations or Columbus Day parades, but I do see every house on the block decked out for Halloween, some as early as late September. I will probably have decorations up no later then the 30th of Sept, and am planning 2 Halloween parties at my house this October. But I've never been to a Columbus Day party, never went to a Columbus Day parade, or see any Columbus Day enthusiasm. Do you?

Just my 2 cents worth.

Mike

[Andybev01]

I went to parochial school from kindergarten through my sophomore year in high school, we usually got Columbus Day Off.

[Murfreesboro]

I have never celebrated Columbus Day or lived anywhere that held a parade for it. I believe state and federal employees may get it off, or at least, the Monday closest to it off. That's what the government did to minor holidays when I was a girl--converted them into three-day weekends. As a result, I believe, people no longer have a clear idea what they stand for. When I was growing up, we never got Washington's or Lincoln's birthdays off, but we knew when they fell, on Feb 22 & Feb 12. Nowadays I don't think the kids know those dates, and the media seem to promote the notion that Presidents' Day honors all the presidents. Heck, maybe it does, now.

My husband, a veteran, resents that the school district in which he teaches does not give Veterans' Day off.

My instinct tells me that we do not want legislation about Halloween. It has always been a grass roots celebration. Let it stay that way.

[Pumpkin_Head]

It would still be nice to have Halloween as an official legal holiday, but I can see your point about leaving it alone. That's all the more reason why it should not be 'officially change' from Oct 31st to the last Saturday. I celebrate the entire Halloween season, but the 31st is THE main day. As for Columbus Day, I don't have anything against it per se, it's just that it seems that nobody ever does anything for it. I went to public Kindergarten, Catholic Grammar school and Catholic High School, and we got it off, but it was just a 'blow-off day. We even got homework over the Columbus Day weekend.

When I started College, they didn't even bother taking it off. It was thought to be 'politically incorrect' holiday, and it was not observed at the community college I attended and worked at for 30 years. It was also not recognized at the university where I got my Bachelors Degree, either.

I just thought that given the popularity of Halloween and the now controversial nature of Columbus Day, it would be better to have October 31st off being that it's getting more and more popular every year. Half of facebook is already posting Halloween decorations for sale, the location of pumpkin patches that will be opened, haunted attractions and the like.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I love Halloween as a season and do feel that the 31rst is special, the zenith. However, I fear that if the government starts legislating it, we'll get a lot of PC stuff we don't like--always on Saturday, always before dark, etc. They will do it "for the children". The Wiccans, who do hold it sacred, I believe, are not a big enough group to influence the legislation, and they might not care if the extraneous fun stuff gets shoved off to the nearest weekend anyway. I just think we should leave well enough alone.

That said, if I did do social media and ran into a lot of posts about changing the observance of Halloween, I would definitely push back. I don't like the PC stuff.

[Pumpkin_Head]

So many things are done for PC and so called progress it's not funny. Regarding PC, however, there are a whole slew of costumes that are outright banned from public schools and universities.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Oh, yes, it's getting ridiculous what costumes are considered offensive.

[Pumpkin_Head]

Well at least the classic monster type costumes (i.e. vampire, werewolf, witch, etc) are still acceptable. However I think it's outright stupid to send a kid home because he comes to a school Halloween party dressed as Jason Vorhees, carrying a plastic machete. It was a toy prop, but that didn't matter. It was a weapon so therefore it promoted violence.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

When my second son was about six months old, I took him to his older brother's preschool picnic. He held a stick in his hand. The teacher commented, "Yep, that's a boy. My daughter never held a stick in her life, but my son was never without one"

It is no use trying to educate little boys to not use weapons or representations of weapons. If they can't have a toy gun, a stick becomes a gun. I think they come here programmed to use tools of one sort or another. This is not a bad thing. It is just a true thing.

[Andybev01]

...It is no use trying to educate little boys to not use weapons or representations of weapons. If they can't have a toy gun, a stick becomes a gun. I think they come here programmed to use tools of one sort or another. This is not a bad thing. It is just a true thing.

Both of you might find this piece by C.R. Wiley interesting.

https://www.firstthings.com/article/201 ... al-manhood

[Murfreesboro]

Thanks for that link Andy. That's a good article, and I agree with the writer's evaluation of our current culture.

Re your concern about changing the date of Halloween, Mike--our local TV news personalities were talking about that online petition today. One agreed with it and the other didn't. I was prompted to look up a news article about it. The writer of the news story believes that nothing will come of the petition no matter how many people should sign it, because Halloween is not a federal holiday. Consequently the President has no authority to change it. It would take an act of Congress to give him that authority.

[Pumpkin_Head]

Not only that, but I tend to agree with what Murf is saying about leaving the legislature out of it. Halloween never was a legal holiday per se, but it's a very beloved tradition for a lot of people none the less, and I wouldn't want to see it changed around, as IMHO it's already been changed around too much with the extension of daylight savings time, trunk or treat, limited hours to ToT, and political correctness rearing it's ugly head when it comes to costumes and various other traditions. I can understand how important it is to keep children, but I don't think it's necessary to make the last Saturday of October the "official" Halloween date.

Now if the legislation MUST get involved, then here is what I propose. It's pretty much a known fact that Christopher did NOT discover America, and he did NOT discover that the world was round. In fact, there were quite a few people back then who already knew, and they knew because the Ancient Greeks knew it was round. Why do we still celebrate Columbus Day? Granted that he was a great explorer, but he was credited with something that he simply didn't do. SO, if the federal legislation wants to get involved, then let's abolish Columbus Day, and REPLACE it with Halloween, on October 31st, and if the 31st should fall on a Saturday or Sunday, make the Friday before or the Monday after the legal holiday like we do with Veterans Day. That IMHO would make more sense then celebrating this holiday in honor of a guy who was wrongly credited with the discovery of America.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

Well, if they should replace Columbus Day with Halloween, I think we would for sure get a "nearest weekend" date. They won't give up a three-day weekend in October.

Columbus did not discover America, but he did open it up for wide-scale European colonization. Back when those of us with European ancestry were proud of it, we celebrated Columbus. Niwadays we seem to be expected to apologize for breathing.