What's up with Halloween here?
I'm not a libertarian. But there's still something oddly creepy when your local government gets into the business of regulating trick-or-treating in what seem like crazy ways. This year in Alma, the city's approved Trick-or-Treat hours are 5:30-7:30 p.m. on October 30.
First of all, why in the world is this not on Halloween? I mean, yes, I can imagine that some days would be more convenient than others in principle, but we don't reschedule Christmas and New Years when the timing's bad. (Or at least, I hope we don't! I was out of town for the winter holidays last year.) I remember one year growing up when Lincoln, NE rescheduled trick-or-treating for a different night, but that was because there was a blizzard just before Halloween.
And second, what's up with those hours? The scheduled time runs from one hour before sunset to right around twilight (at 7:30 it will still be light enough to see the general shapes of things even without streetlights). When I was a kid, a significant aspect of Halloween was the spooky atmosphere. I have fond memories of houses with cool jack-o'-lanterns and some fairly intricate scary scenes in their yards, and as I got older I had fun jumping out of the shadows by our porch in costume to scare trick-or-treaters. Absolutely none of that works if the sun hasn't even set when the kids show up! Last year, by the time it was dark enough to see the candles in our pumpkins (7pm or so), practically nobody was still out in the neighborhood. (It's pretty clear from the timing that this is some "Think of the children!" safety measure, but I'm curious to know how much harm it actually prevents. Is it a big enough benefit to make it worth gutting the holiday this way?)
I had always hoped that when I finally owned my own house, I could eventually do cool stuff for Halloween. Sadly, the way things work here I don't think there would be much point.
(I really have to wonder why that city trick-or-treating message bothers to suggest reflective costumes: won't sunlight on all that reflective gear blind passing motorists? Flashlights would have been useless for most of our trick-or-treaters last year, too.)
First of all, why in the world is this not on Halloween? I mean, yes, I can imagine that some days would be more convenient than others in principle, but we don't reschedule Christmas and New Years when the timing's bad. (Or at least, I hope we don't! I was out of town for the winter holidays last year.) I remember one year growing up when Lincoln, NE rescheduled trick-or-treating for a different night, but that was because there was a blizzard just before Halloween.
And second, what's up with those hours? The scheduled time runs from one hour before sunset to right around twilight (at 7:30 it will still be light enough to see the general shapes of things even without streetlights). When I was a kid, a significant aspect of Halloween was the spooky atmosphere. I have fond memories of houses with cool jack-o'-lanterns and some fairly intricate scary scenes in their yards, and as I got older I had fun jumping out of the shadows by our porch in costume to scare trick-or-treaters. Absolutely none of that works if the sun hasn't even set when the kids show up! Last year, by the time it was dark enough to see the candles in our pumpkins (7pm or so), practically nobody was still out in the neighborhood. (It's pretty clear from the timing that this is some "Think of the children!" safety measure, but I'm curious to know how much harm it actually prevents. Is it a big enough benefit to make it worth gutting the holiday this way?)
I had always hoped that when I finally owned my own house, I could eventually do cool stuff for Halloween. Sadly, the way things work here I don't think there would be much point.
(I really have to wonder why that city trick-or-treating message bothers to suggest reflective costumes: won't sunlight on all that reflective gear blind passing motorists? Flashlights would have been useless for most of our trick-or-treaters last year, too.)