Halloween is quickly approaching, and along with other towns across the country, Edmond, Okla. officially moved this year’s Halloween festivities from Sun., Oct. 31 to Sat., Oct. 30. The holiday’s date change has sparked confusion among neighborhoods about what day to celebrate.

It doesn’t make sense to move the date of any festivity, especially one as well known as Halloween. Some holidays, like Thanksgiving and Mother’s Day, change dates each year, but they are always on the same day of the week. This makes sense because there is a pattern, and it is always the same. Other holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day and of course Halloween also have a pattern, they are always on the specific date that has been established for years. But this year Edmond decided to alter that familiar globally observed pattern.

There was not an official reason stated as to why the holiday was moved, but Edmond did mention the city also moved the holiday from Sunday to Saturday back in 2010.

There are legitimate reasons to move the holiday from a Sunday night, as it is a school night. However, when Halloween has taken place on a Monday-Thursday it hasn’t been moved, and those are also school nights. I don’t see why it would have been moved off a school night, when it has a 5/7 chance to be on a school night regularly.

It is likely Edmond’s other reason for moving the holiday is because Sunday is a holy day for many religions. However, the Jewish Sabbath takes place from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday; therefore the move of the holiday this year is interfering with their celebration. No matter when the holiday is observed it will be stepping on some group’s religion, so it should just remain on the usual day as that is what people expect.

The move of Halloween is especially unfortunate for Edmond Memorial, North and Santa Fe’s high school band members as they have their state contest, OBA (Oklahoma Bandmasters’ Association), that falls on Oct. 30, the new date for Halloween in Edmond. Each school has around 200 people in their band, and all of those students will be at OBA all day, missing all of Halloween. If the date hadn’t been changed they would be able to experience Halloween with everyone else.

The date change is really going to cause an issue in the Oklahoma City metro area. Edmond and Oklahoma City are so close, and Oklahoma City has decided to still celebrate Halloween on the original date of Oct. 31. Many Edmond neighborhoods (including my own) have had discussions about when people will be trick-or-treating, and select neighborhoods near the border of Edmond and Oklahoma City actually came to the conclusion (via social media) that some people will go Saturday, some people Sunday and some people on both nights. The bit of good coming out of Edmond’s decision is that many kids will be able to experience Halloween two nights in a row.

The biggest issue arising from the date change is the lack of publicization. I hadn’t even learned of the date change until a friend happened to tell me about it, which shows that it hasn’t been shared very well, and there will be some people that do not know about it and celebrate on the “wrong” day.

Halloween should always be celebrated on Oct. 31, to avoid confusion, disagreements and unfairness. 

Contact Kelsi Seltenreich at [email protected]