You can’t change the date of a holiday.

Christmas is always on December 25th. Independence Day is always on July 4th. Halloween is always on October 31st. Right?

Wrong. According to the Town of Westport, this year Halloween is on November 5th. On October 31st, Westport officials decided that due to the recent snowstorm, it would be unsafe for children to trick-or-treat on the actual date of Halloween. Through its official Twitter account, the Town tweeted, “Send kids Trick or Treating on Saturday, not tonight!”

I must admit that I agree with the town’s reasoning. Broken branches, spotty power, down power lines: the roads were surely unfit for anyone to be walking on.

I would like to say, “Good decision making, Westport.” Yet one thing is holding me back. If the roads were so unsafe to be walking on that night, why were students permitted to walk to bus stops that very morning? The roads certainly didn’t get worse over the course of a day. In fact, it’s likely that they improved by the time trick-or-treating would have begun.

This cloudy decision-making process has led me to the following unscientific and completely opinion-based conclusion: If school is not canceled due to unsafe conditions, then a holiday cannot be postponed due to those same unsafe conditions.

I’m not alone. Patrick Hamonet ‘13 felt that his Halloween plans were ruined due to the postponement of Halloween.

“I think the people in charge of making that decision were way too cautious and that they ruined Halloween 2011 for many of us,” Hamonet said.

Lily Barsanti ’14 echoed Hamonet’s beliefs, adding, “You can’t cancel Christmas; you can’t cancel Halloween.”

If Westport needed to postpone Halloween to keep people safe, that’s fine with me. However, what doesn’t go over so smoothly with me is the fact that they were picking-and-choosing what to cancel. If it’s unsafe for kids to trick-or-treat, then it’s unsafe for kids to walk to bus stops. There should not be a grey area.

That being said, maybe having two opportunities to get candy isn’t such a bad thing after all…