A Petition Is Pushing For An Official National Trick Or Treat Day

When Halloween time rolls around every year, there are always perplexed people who are either new to the Toms River area or see our chatter from afar and wonder what the heck the deal is with trick or treat not being on Halloween itself.

Of course, we all know that it's to accommodate Toms River's annual Halloween Parade, one of the biggest in the country, allowing families to enjoy both trick or treating and the parade.

It was even worse when I lived in central Pennsylvania, where every town had a Halloween parade and trick or treat nights were spread throughout the week leading up to October 31st (which of course is great for kids whose parents are willing to town hop all week long but is a nightmare for radio DJs who are obligated to sign up to march in at least 3 of those parades, but I digress).

One group wants to put a stop to all of the confusion and declare an official National Trick or Treat Day.

According to National Day Calendar, the Halloween & Costume Association is targeting the last Saturday in October as the day that the door to door tradition should be observed.

They're so enthusiastic about the idea that they've even started a petition that as of this writing already has over 150,000 signatures.

On one hand, sure, it makes sense to trick or treat on a weekend.

On the other hand, though, depending on the year, trick or treating could be as far as nearly a week before Halloween itself.

And, here in Ocean County at least, it wouldn't permanently solve the parade schedule conflict, with the last Saturday in October falling on the 31st just next year in 2020, again in 2026, and so on.

You can read much more on the National Trick or Treat Day movement by clicking here for the National Day Calendar story, and you can check out the Change.org petition by clicking here.

What do you think of the idea of making the last Saturday in October (regardless of what day Halloween falls on) an official national holiday? Stop by our Facebook page and weigh in!