While many superintendents are cancelling Halloween festivities, a new online petition is imploring schools to cancel classes the day after the spooky holiday instead. This new appeal says that students are exhausted after a long night of trick-or-treating and should not be forced to wake up early again the next day.
Given that these kids want to get as much candy as possible, it makes sense that they’ll stay out as late as they can to gather all those sweets. When Halloween falls on a weekday, as it so often does, their annual festivities can be cut short by their parents because they have to go to school the next day. This new petition would change all that though by making November 1st a nationwide holiday.
Of course, this isn’t the first entreaty to hit the Internet that’s expressed concern over late-night trick-or-treating. Another public plea advocated that Halloween should be permanently moved to a Saturday. That way students can have fun all day without worrying about being home early to go to school the next day. It would also benefit many adults who use the holiday as an excuse to dress up in a fun costume and go party. School officials should also be onboard with the idea, as more and more of them seem to be prohibiting the celebration of October 31st because it isn’t inclusive.
While both of these petitions seem to be gaining a lot of steam, it seems unlikely that either will yield any legitimate results. Halloween has been celebrated on the last day of the month for years now and many people probably don’t want to change that tradition. That shouldn’t stop them from trying, though. Maybe one day we can all live in a world where November 1st is a federal holiday. Michael Myers could certainly use the rest.
