Thousands Sign Petition to Move Halloween to Last Saturday in October

Tens of thousands of people are asking the White House to change the date of Halloween from October 31 to the last Saturday of the month to make the holiday safer, longer and stress-free. The Change.org petition already has more than 33,000 signatures. Many parents have long argued the holiday is less fun for everyone when it lands on a school and work night.

According to the Halloween and Costume Association, the organization that started the petition, 70 percent of parents do not accompany their children trick-or-treating and 3,800 people are injured every year in Halloween-related incidents. They say changing the holiday to a Saturday would make it safer, reports CBS News' Jericka Duncan. 

Holidays have been moved before. In the 1960s, Congress moved George Washington's birthday and Labor Day to Mondays so people could conveniently observe with a three-day weekend.

But Halloween is not a federal holiday and likely won't become one, said author and historian Kenneth C. Davis.

"It's very expensive for the federal government to declare a federal holiday," he said. "So I don't see any time soon a new holiday for Halloween."


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