Thousands sign petition to move the date of Halloween

An online petition proposing to move Halloween to the last Saturday of October has garnered thousands of signatures and growing support.

More than 60,000 people signed the Change.org petition as of Thursday evening. The goal is 75,000 signatures.

The Halloween & Costume Association, which started the movement, called for a “Safer, Longer, Stress-Free Celebration.”

The company claimed that there are 3,800 Halloween-related injuries each year and 70% of parents don’t accompany their children when they go trick-or-treating.

It was not immediately clear how moving the date for the holiday would help solve that problem, but the petition noted that the switch would allow for a full day of celebration rather than “rushed evening weekday hours.”

People who signed the petition appeared to agree.

“Halloween Trick or Treating for children would be much safer if celebrated during daylight hours, which can only happen on non school days like Saturday,” a user, identified as Howard Beige, wrote in the “Reasons for signing” section.

Halloween is celebrated on Oct. 31.