--- title: Halloween: Why Not Move It to a Saturday? description: Halloween being on a weeknight can cause a lot of problems for parents — so why not move it to a Saturday? canonical: https://time.com/4553080/halloween-on-saturday-petition/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-01T20:31:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:59.696Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Move Halloween to Saturday? There's a Petition for That og:description: Who says America can't tackle the big issues? og:url: https://time.com/4553080/halloween-on-saturday-petition/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6b072d3b4c11012/6988ac8dbc6cfcc5343df2ac/halloween.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2448 og:image:height: 1377 og:image:alt: Nice to see you, boys; get back to me on Saturday og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Move Halloween to Saturday? There's a Petition for That twitter:description: Who says America can't tackle the big issues? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6b072d3b4c11012/6988ac8dbc6cfcc5343df2ac/halloween.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Move Halloween to Saturday? There's a Petition for That > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=f0e742aa-ba2a-47fd-bda6-b40b2c14ef8d&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: See the Creepy Traditions That Created Halloween [Watch (HLS stream): See the Creepy Traditions That Created Halloween](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cag1kbVq.m3u8) (1:37)  _Published 2014-10-27. See the Creepy Traditions That Created Halloween_  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Nov 1, 2016 8:31 PM UTC  Nice to see you, boys; get back to me on Saturday Nice to see you, boys; get back to me on Saturday Lisa J Goodman; Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Nov 1, 2016 8:31 PM UTC I don’t know what Abraham Lincoln’s appointment calendar looked like on October 3, 1863, but here’s betting he took the afternoon off. October 3, 1863 was [the day Lincoln signed a proclamation](http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm) inviting his “fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and sojourning in foreign lands to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of national Thanksgiving.” Americans—who recognized a handy excuse to eat when they heard one—jumped at the suggestion, so props to Lincoln for what turned out to be a great idea. But after the proclamation was signed he clearly left work early. That at least is the only explanation for why, as long as he was thinking about holidays, he didn’t take a look at Halloween too. The genius of Thanksgiving, of course, is the business of the Thursday. Roll that day into Friday, tack on the weekend and bam, you’ve got yourself a little vacation. But Halloween? Halloween’s all about October 31, take it or leave it. You say your child has a math test tomorrow? Can’t be helped. You say you have a presentation in the morning and can’t afford to be walking the streets till 9 PM while your kids go all Oliver Twist-y asking the neighbors for candy? Deal with it. Any parent who has spent a November 1 morning trying to roust a cranky, chocolate-drunk child out of bed could tell you that Halloween is not a holiday that belongs on a weekday. And any teacher who has tried to settle down a roomful of students still on a morning-after sugar bender would agree. [**Click here to sign TIME’s petition asking the White House to move Halloween to a Saturday**](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/move-halloween-saturday) None of this, it should be stressed, is Halloween’s fault. It’s the Medieval Celts who are most commonly credited with inventing what we think of as Halloween, observing a day when the boundary between the physical world and the otherworld disappears and the spirits of the dead—the _Aos Sí_—could travel across and wander free. Since there’s nothing worse than an _Aos Sí_ in a lousy mood, best to leave out some food or other treats for them so they don’t mess with the crops or tip the cows. The Romans came up with a similar idea much earlier, observing a holiday feast to appease the spirits with the bounty of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds. It’s not hard to see how a few centuries on, the wandering spirits of the Celts and Romans could turn into wandering children dressed like Spiderman. Trick or treat, similarly, replaced the feast, and as for fruits and seeds? Please. Try to give those to a 21st century child expecting a Snickers, and the goddess Pomona is going to be bumped aside by the god Sluggo, lord of the egged house and the toilet-papered tree. Best to play it safe and hand over the goodies when the kids demand them. The problem, of course, is that those goodies come home. In a study [reported in Medical Daily](http://www.medicaldaily.com/childhood-obesity-update-kids-will-consume-over-3000-calories-candy-during-402766), researchers surveyed 2,187 parents and asked them to estimate how much candy each of their children brought home after trick or treating. On average, they found, a single child collects and consumes 3,190 calories worth of sweets, not including the amount the parents ultimately—often surreptitiously—threw away. Oh, and parents, in case you thought nobody noticed you filching something out of the kids’ bags, according to the researchers you’re on the hook for a cool 1,710 calories yourself. All of this is fine with the candy industry, which is expected to cash in on Halloween to the tune of a record $2.69 billion this year, according to [_confectionerynews.com_](http://www.confectionerynews.com/Trends/Seasonal/Halloween-candy-sales-set-to-hit-record-high-in-2016) (yes, there is such a thing). And none of that touches the riches earned by the costume industry or the party decoration industry and whatever industry it is that produces those hollow plastic pumpkin-shaped candy buckets that have absolutely no use the other 364 days of the year but live on top of the refrigerator all the same. So Halloween is surely here to stay, and in the same way department stores and big box stores have their Black Friday, let’s not begrudge the Halloween sector its Orange Friday—or even better Orange Saturday. But in the interests of parents, in the interests of teachers in the interests of the wild-eyed, sugar-wired children themselves, let’s have no more Orange Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. If Abe Lincoln could get Thanksgiving right, Barack Obama could do the same for Halloween, and even more easily too, since while the 16th President didn’t have a White House website, the 44th does—and it’s a website that accepts petitions. TIME has already handled the hard part—setting up what will surely be the paradigm-changing _Move Halloween to Saturday!_ petition. All you have to do is [click here](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/move-halloween-saturday) and add your name. Petitions that collect 100,000 signatures in 30 days (or by December 1, 2016) receive consideration by the White House and an official response. Don’t wait. Do it today—for yourself, for the children, for America’s future. ## Transcript All Hallow's Eve, the holy evening. All Saint's Eve. No matter what you call it, one thing is certain. The true origin of Halloween is still shrouded in mystery. But here's what we do know. Halloween is linked to an [ MUSIC ] old Celtic festival called [ UNKNOWN ]. [ MUSIC ] It marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of Winter, the darker half of the year. [ MUSIC ] That's when the souls of the dead were set to come back to life to wreak havoc on crops, unless of course they were appeased through offerings and rituals. During the festival people dressed in costume to imitate the dead spirit. And went door to door reciting verses in exchange for food offerings. When Christian Missionaries came to change Keltic religious practices in the 13th century AD, those rituals evolved. [ INAUDIBLE ] became a day to pray for the death. So spirits stuck in purgatory could find their way into heaven. People went door to door singing. Offering Bible verses and collecting what's called soul cakes. People still donned costumes but this time it was to disguise them from dead spirits searching for vengeance against their human enemies. For further protection observers filled hollowed out turnips with candles to ward off evil spirits. But once the holiday reached North America, turnips were traded for pumpkins, which were easier to carve and native to the continent. Historians have suggested this is the origin for modern- day Halloween and trick- or- treating. [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4553080/halloween-on-saturday-petition/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4553080/halloween-on-saturday-petition/"},"headline":"Move Halloween to Saturday? 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