Halloween is three days away, but for many kids in our area trick-or-treating starts tonight. That’s right TONIGHT! What am I saying? Our mini ghosts and goblins won’t actually be going door-to-door at night; rather they will be knocking from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. I’m not sure where you live, but here in the Midwest portion of the United States kids will be gathering treats in broad daylight on a day that’s not even Halloween. What has happened to our world?
I can’t speak for all midwestern states, but I will for Wisconsin and Minnesota. Several cities in those states mandate that children trick-or-treat on Saturday or Sunday prior to Halloween during daylight hours (most have a 7 p.m. cut off time). I absolutely agree that safety comes first (after all I have a 2-year-old who will be making the rounds as well), but I also think it is a sad commentary about the world we live in.
Trick or treating when the sun’s still up? Is there anything scary about that? Or is that the point? Do you remember Halloween growing up? No matter what day of the week the holiday fell you would eat dinner and put on your hobo or gypsy costume (I was Mr. Doobie three years in a row, a hobo two years in a row) and head out in the dark with your flashlight (if your brothers hadn’t taken them all) and wander from house to house. We would trick-or-treat until we hit every last house in our neighborhood (and the two adjacent ones) then return home and dump our candy out while our parents watched the 10 p.m. news. They never checked any of our loot (how could they when we downed half of it before getting home) or asked if strangers approached us on the street.
Nowadays, some children don’t go trick-or-treating they go trunk-or-treating in church parking lots. It’s considered a “safe” alternative to the original door-to-door candy gathering. Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea that children can still dress up and receive candy from safe sources and not be subject to child abductors while doing so. In fact, I just took my own daughter to “Sweet Street” yesterday. It’s an event put on by a number of local businesses, which offers “safe” trick-or-treating, games, rides, inflatable obstacle courses, live bands, and a host of other kid-friendly activities. My daughter had a great time pumpkin bowling, watching a dog show and trick-or-treating at various booths. I also loved the fact that she had another activity to wear her costume to (I like her to use the costume as much as possible to justify the money I spent on it).
Like I said, it was a great time, but it certainly does not compare to the Halloweens I experienced growing up.
What about you? When will your kids be trick-or-treating? Do you miss the Halloween’s of years past or are you happy with the way it is now?
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