Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Halloween and the Saints

I'm about as big a Who Dat as they come, but it's now reaching ridiculous levels. We got a glimpse into the irrational madness at the beginning of the season when the New Orleans Public Schools called a half-day school holiday on the Saints' season-opening Thursday night game against the Minnesota Vikings, and my kids came home from school without homework because of the game. Now, it appears that the city's officials are considering moving Halloween trick-or-treating (as if they even have that ability!!) to the 30th instead of the 31st of October so as not to conflict with the Saints game that's scheduled for the 31st. How pathetic is that? The Saints win one superbowl, but are currently a mediocre 3-2 team, and folks want to re-arrange a long-standing public holiday tradition?!?!? NO, NO, and NOT! Get real, people! It's just a friggin' game!

4 comments:

eric said...

Our town usually moves trick-or-treating to the closest Saturday to Halloween so the kids can stay out late and also attend the local Halloween carnival in their costumes. I suspect once the kids enjoy Saturday trick-or-treating they won't ever want to go back to doing it on a school night!

Sarabeth said...

It's pretty normal to have trick or treating be on a Saturday instead of a Sunday. Our neighborhood is already doing that.

Huck said...

Eric and Sarabeth - Fine. But that's not the tradition here and it never has been for the 42 years of my entire life. If folks want to effect change in the Halloween culture of New Orleans to make the nearest Saturday the new trick-or-treating day, that's fine; but my issue is the reason why this change is being pondered. It's not because of making sure kids can stay up later, or participate in a local Halloween carnival, or giving kids a sleep-in weekend day to crash and recover from a sugar high: it's to avoid a conflict with a Saints football game. Were the Saints playing on a Monday night or if Halloween were on any other day of the week than a Saints football Sunday, we wouldn't be even considering this. This Saints obsession is reaching unhealthy proportions.

Anonymous said...

You can bet that at least 15,000 kids are doing their Halloween masking in the Superdome. Oooops!
The trick was on the Steelers and the Saints got the treat, just in time for All-Saints Day!