The annual “what time is trick-or-treat” conversation
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Anonymous
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Every year, my neighborhood group has a massive discussion about what time trick-or-treating is. Or whether Halloween should be “moved.”
Some want Halloween on another day or for trick-or-treating to be in the afternoon. There are still trunk-or-treats, right? Does anyone live in a neighborhood where trick-or-treat was moved? |
Anonymous
| 6:00 p.m. EDT is should begin for the younger kids. |
Anonymous
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I work in a 9-5 office and leave a little early to get home on Halloween, but I think 6 PM is fair.
Give people chance to get home and eat something! Geez. |
Anonymous
| It’s 6. It’s always been 6. SIX O’CLOCK. 6:00pm. 1800 hours. |
Anonymous
| 6-8 PM |
Anonymous
| I personally feel as if tradition still dictates that trick-or-treating begins as soon as it gets dark outside…..and even a half hour prior. 🎃👻🎃👻 |
Anonymous
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There’s no official start or end time.
Go knock on a door. If they answer, chances are you’ll get candy. We start just before sunset in our immediate neighborhood where the empty nesters love seeing the neighborhood kids. Then DH takes the kids to go trick or treating with friends in another neighborhood with a bunch of dads while I stay home to pass out candy with neighborhood moms. Steady stream between 6 and 8:30. I typically turn out the lights/decorations around 9 or so. Certain streets have parties that go until 10 or so. |
Anonymous
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Trick or Treat is a Celtic tradition with pagan roots celebrated on the Christian All Hallow's Eve, Oct 31st, starting at dusk and continuing all night.
It's that time of the year, when the spirit world and human world get so close they touch. Malicious or mischievous faerie, hobgoblins, and witches can enter our world and create havoc, and may even carry people away. We ward them off by dressing as them and partying, scaring people in their homes and demanding goodies. The next day, Nov 1, is All Hallows Day, or All Saints Day, when we celebrate the life of the Saints. And the following day, Nov 2, is All Souls Day, when we celebrate departed relatives and place flowers on their graves (people do that on Nov 1, if that day is a national holiday in their country and Nov 2 is not). Mexico has its related Holiday, Dios de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. These Holy Days and associated pagan rites come from Christian Western Tradition, observed in several countries of Europe, Eastern Europe, and North America. If you don't like it, too bad for you. |
Anonymous
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This comes up every year because parents of toddlers want to go in daylight. Parents of older kids rushing home from activities or the office aren’t usually ready to have a knock at the door at 5pm.
I’m a believer that 6pm is a happy medium. In any case, door closed, porch lights off is typically the universal sign that a house isn’t ready to participate in the evening no matter what time it is. |
Anonymous
| I am usually ready to receive trick or treaters by 6. I take my slightly older kids out around 6:30, when it is about to start to get dark. |
Anonymous
| We’ve never had a Trick or Treater before 6PM and rarely get them after 7:30. It’s a big departure from the 90s when Trick or Treating stretched from school dismissal to midnight. |
Anonymous
This was never true |
Anonymous
| The little ones go out around 530 in our neighborhood but everyone else is between 6-8. When my kid was really little, some people were already sitting on their stoops by 5, waiting for the first wave to come. |
Anonymous
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When we had a toddler who went to sleep at 6:30pm, we went out at 5:30pm. But only to houses of people we already knew!
In general most kids go out between 6pm-8pm. We get the occasional door bell after 8pm, but rarely. |
Anonymous
| It starts at dusk. Whatever time that is in your area. |