Rocio Villalobos 
EDINBURG – This past weekend marked the celebration of a new holiday that arose from a petition to move Halloween to the weekend.
A failed petition to change Halloween’s date is what helped create Trick or Treat day, which is now a national holiday that will be celebrated on the last Saturday of every October.
Launched last year by the National Halloween Association on change.org, the petition aimed at creating a “safer, longer, stress-free” celebration reached more than 100,000 signatures. But instead of moving the date, an extra day of celebration was added.
UTRGV-TV visited a local pumpkin patch to learn what parents and children do for Halloween and what they think about celebrating on a Saturday.
“We actually do trick or treating at our house,” said parent Valeria Melgoza. “So we like to do dress up, we like to have a big cauldron out in our front yard and have all the kids from the neighborhood come collect candy and just have a great night with family and friends.”
This is her daughter’s second year enjoying Halloween, but she hopes Trick-or-Treat Day catches on because it would mean less weekday stress.
“It’s kinda hard to come out and celebrate with my little girl rushing home from school and trying to get her dressed, and us dressed and everything ready, and then having the kids come at the same time,” she said. “So it would actually be really fabulous for us.”
Six-year-old Miguel Arellano agrees and tells us a weekend holiday would mean more fun for him.
“Would you be happy if Halloween were to be moved to a Saturday so you wouldn’t have to wake up for school the next morning?” asked the reporter.
“I would love to,” said Miguel.
Arellano adds his favorite part of Halloween is collecting candy, but he always takes safety precautions.
“I want to go trick-or-treating and tell your parents to check your candy,” he said.
We also spoke with a political science professor at UTRGV to find out what it would take to make Halloween a single holiday celebrated on a weekend date—the original aim of the petition.
“To move it would require moving against the businesses or cooperating with the businesses and making sure they subscribe to it,” said Dr. Sonia Alianak. “It needs a lot of redoing on their part.”
If you haven’t yet heard of National Trick-or-Treat day, some others might not have either. This could mean twice the amount of trick-or-treaters, so you might want to buy extra candy.
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