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How we can change the date of Halloween

Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are bigger than Congress

Matthew Alice: How do you go about changing the observed date of a holiday? My friends and I feel that Halloween should be observed on the last Saturday in October. That way children could go trick-or-treating in the afternoon, and adults would have Sunday to recover from any parties. Anyone who still observes Halloween as a holiday could celebrate it on the 31st. — Charles Gregory Weir, faxland

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Halloween a holiday? I want to be there when you argue that point with the meter maid. Since banks and post offices don’t close on October 31, it’s just a celebration. The date was set thousands of years ago, a combination of the Druids’ New Year’s Eve and the date on which the dead come back for a visit. The Church superimposed AH Saints and All Souls days (honoring martyrs and all Christian dead) on the pagan fiesta to distract us from all the fun. Only Congress can declare the date of Lincoln’s birth to be some changeable Monday to give us a three-day weekend. Arbitrary Christian-pagan dates like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are even bigger than Congress. Doubt that they’ll change it just so we don’t have to go to work on November 1 with a hangover.

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Matthew Alice: How do you go about changing the observed date of a holiday? My friends and I feel that Halloween should be observed on the last Saturday in October. That way children could go trick-or-treating in the afternoon, and adults would have Sunday to recover from any parties. Anyone who still observes Halloween as a holiday could celebrate it on the 31st. — Charles Gregory Weir, faxland

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Halloween a holiday? I want to be there when you argue that point with the meter maid. Since banks and post offices don’t close on October 31, it’s just a celebration. The date was set thousands of years ago, a combination of the Druids’ New Year’s Eve and the date on which the dead come back for a visit. The Church superimposed AH Saints and All Souls days (honoring martyrs and all Christian dead) on the pagan fiesta to distract us from all the fun. Only Congress can declare the date of Lincoln’s birth to be some changeable Monday to give us a three-day weekend. Arbitrary Christian-pagan dates like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are even bigger than Congress. Doubt that they’ll change it just so we don’t have to go to work on November 1 with a hangover.

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