Changing the Date of Halloween: Jamie Metrick

I must admit that I am an unabashed lover of Halloween even though I am technically an "adult." I love dressing up in costumes, watching scary movies, and having the go-ahead one night a year to eat as much candy as I can stuff into my face. Because, at the risk of sounding like a Charles Schultz special, Halloween is about the magic. We're only supposed to believe in magic for our brief youth and then give in to the dullness of reality. I think Halloween has become fun for teens and some of us grown-ups because for one night, we're allowed to at least pretend we believe in ghosts and devils and mischief.

But of course it's a profitable holiday: candy, costumes, decorations, pumpkins, fake blood. It's a macabre gold mine. But come on, soulless corporate America - who are blood suckers all year- maximize holiday profit potential by changing the date? They wouldn't dare mess with other holidays. Can you imagine the outrage if they moved Christmas to December 27th to give consumers an extra shopping day? And all of that "oh it will be more convenient for the children" crap is such a weak, thinly veiled excuse. If you want to talk about an inconvenient holiday, try Thanksgiving. Most of all, don't they realize this could hurt their bottom line? This Halloween happened to fall on a Saturday. In 2010, the last Saturday will be on the 30th, the year after that Halloween will be on the 29th and so on. You are actually loosing precious days to sell refined sugar and plastic fangs.

So on a practical level, there is nothing practical about a date change nor profitable that I can see. October 31st is Halloween. I don't see how any company or government legislation can change that. Kids are not dumb. Can you image telling a nine year old next year that Halloween is on the 30th? They'd just frown the way kids do when their little developing bullshit detectors go off and say, "But isn't it on the 31st?" If these companies really cared about children, and Halloween lovers like me, they wouldn't cut our revelry and magic short a couple of days to line their pockets.

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