Daily BrewHurricane Sandy forces rescheduling of Halloween along East Coast
Halloween may be scheduled for Wednesday, but Hurricane Sandy has tricked some cities into holding their festivities early, or postponing them until the worst weather has passed.
The storm hitting the East Coast has parents questioning whether to keep their children home from Halloween trick-or-treating and prompted some local governments into making the decision for them.
The mayor Gloucester, Mass., announced that trick-or-treating would be held for a two-hour period late Sunday afternoon, three days before the rest of us celebrate Halloween.
[ Related: Ripped-from-headlines costumes popular for Halloween ]
Due to the unpredictability of Hurricane Sandy, residents were encouraged to take their children door-to-door between the hours of 4 pm and 6 pm.
Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk, via Wicked Local:
Every child in the city and their families want to enjoy a safe Halloween tradition without the concern, confusion, or fear that a favorite holiday will be jeopardized by the storm, so we are urging neighbors to have children celebrate early in good weather, without concern for public safety issues that might arise as a result of the storm.
According to USA Today, several other communities including Vineland, N.J., and Kittery, Maine, also elected to hold Halloween festivities over the weekend.
Dover, N.H., Oxford, N.J., and Charles County, M.D., meantime, are among the communities that decided to postpone Halloween until next weekend.
No word on Halloween being cancelled in Eastern Canada, but Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has asked residents to remove Halloween decorations from their lawns before the storm hits town (via Toronto Sun's Don Peat).
Hurricane Sandy should not be taken lightly along the East Coast, but transitive powers of the calendar shouldn't be overlooked either. Halloween is on October 31 every year. This year, October 31 is Wednesday. Therefore, Wednesday is Halloween.
[ More Brew: Ag Fair cancels running bulls down Bay Street ]
Many U.S. towns were forced to cancel trick-or-treating last year and are considering the same again, but rescheduling the holiday is a novel trick, indeed.
If we are going to find a more convenient time for Halloween, why not July? It would save Prairie kids from having to weak parkas under their costumes.
