No. We have a trunk-or-treat on Saturday. But we will enable trick-or-treating by having candy and our lights on.

In VA as well…definitely going.

I feel that the Sabbath is the Sabbath, regardless of what social holidays fall on it. As such, in our family Sabbath observation gets priority. I would rather bastardize a man-made holiday than bastardize the Lord’s day.

Regarding the whole ‘family activity’ rationalization – Going to a theme park can be a family activity — does that make it OK to do on a Sunday? Going grocery shopping can be a family activity — does that make it OK to do on a Sunday? Going water skiing can be a family activity… well, you see my point. Just because something is an activity enjoyed by the whole family does not make it Sabbath-appropriate. Sabbath activities should not only be family-centered, but Christ-centered as well.

Location – Midwest born and raised, wouldn’t live in Utah if you paid me.

I’m with Palad….and in our community, where we LDS are in a *decided* minority, our town (as are most towns in this state, it turns out) are having the “recognized” trick-or-treat night on Saturday. Ward party/trunk-or-treat is tonight.

Hey Palad, why the animosity baby? What’d I ever do to you?

I’m also in Virginia and we are not going and not handing out treats. We took the kids to our ward’s Saturday “trunk or treat” and told them that would be it.

Non Utah. We will attend our Ward Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday. And then will self-righteously turn off the porch light on Sunday and sit inside and remind ourselves how awesome we are for not associating with our neighbors. But I’m not bitter. Nooooo . . . (Can you tell who won this argument in my household?!)

While we’re at it, man was made for the Sabbath, right?

@ 6 Palad, assuming your institute teacher was being serious, he is a dope and a real bore. And, yes almost every item on your list is fine with Sabbath observance, imo, except the grocery shopping example b/c that’s silly-nobody enjoys grocery shopping on any day and to drag the whole family borders on cruel and unusual punishment and would be even dumber than your institute teacher.

A better way to find out who’s on the Lord’s side is to see who voluntarily chooses to travel on Sunday. Sabbath flying requires a lot of people to work: pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, mechanics, air traffic controllers and on and on. I suspect the late Sunday evening flights to SLC are filled with returning GAs from their various weekend assignments. Throw in Area Authority Seventies and there are lots of Sunday flights taking Church leaders to their homes after a weekend of service. Oh, the horror! (I’m being facetious. I believe GAs and AA70s are on the Lord’s side. Goofy institute teachers I’m less sure about.) And, how in the world does President Uchtdorf justify voluntarily and enthusiastically entering a profession he knew would require regular Sabbath work? It’s not like airline pilots are akin to police officers and fire fighters who we absolutely need to be available and working on the Sabbath.

We plan on trick or treating but I’m trying to get out of it so I can stay home and continue my Sabbath worship by watching the Sunday night football game and game 4 of the World Series. Thanks to the miracle of a dual tuner TIVO, I can watch both simultaneaously and in
in real time.

Because of a quirk involving leap year it will be more than ten years before Halloween falls on a Sunday again.

oh then all good cause by then my youngest will be 13

san diego and kids under seven. school carnival and trunk-or-treat tonight. tomorrow, after church, we’re making little crafts and pumpkin bread for family, eating some chili, and taking the gifts to the neighbors right next-door, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. with such little ones, we don’t run door-to-door anyway, and our neighborhood doesn’t “do” t-or-t (houses far apart, no sidewalk, BUSY street).

ESO – sorry, when you said “this year” I assumed it was a Sabbath reason to be unfriendly, not a multi-faceted reason. It just struck me oddly that anyone would consider it appropriate Sabbath Holiness to be unfriendly. We don’t get over kill in our neighborhood, I guess I can imagine feeling grinchy if I did.
Personally I love the drop by. I hate having to call people on the phone and I’d much rather talk to them face to face. Unfortunately, our culture doesn’t let you do it much.
I remember my childhood days of dressing up and getting in the car to drive to 6-10 American families on a list to trick or treat. I did luck out and get to go one year in the US.

LOL JKS–I am just generally unfriendly, not Sabbath-specific. I can understand the appeal of dropping by, and if my house were cleaner more often, I’d probably be more receptive, but at this point in my life, it causes major stress. I am, however, guilty of inflicting it on others, in which case I am totally fine leaving the treat on the doorstep if they don’t answer.

It worked out perfectly for us. I took zachary out Saturday night because we had a family birthday party to go to on Sunday. We went before dark too, and a couple of houses gave us Handfuls of candy because they didn’t think anybody else would come. It was a really nasty night. There were a couple of snotty houses that had signs out that said “too early. come back tomorrow.”

My issue was less about it being the sabbath and more about it being a school night. There are years of Halloween that we can’t avoid school nights, but when it falls on a Sunday we can. Ours in the midwest was on Sunday. Some in our ward went, some didn’t. Not a big deal.
What annoyed me about Halloween were the teenage girls dressed as bimbos, the parents who were actually driving their kids from door to door, and the elementary age trick or treaters who were talking on cell phones as they shoved their bag in my face. But then there were the teenagers collecting canned goods for charity, all the kids that said “thank you!”, and it was fun again.

What is a trunk or treat?