Halloween has been around for centuries around the world. It is celebrated every year and marked on most calenders. Free candy is handed out nationally and globally every year. Thousands of dollars go into buying Halloween decorations every year. Costumes for all ages are bought year round. This almost sounds like a recognized holiday, but “officially” it is not.

Halloween has yet to be granted to be officially recognized like other holidays such as Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. Although Halloween might not have been around as long as those holidays, most people still dress up and engulf tons of candy from their Halloween baskets. Stores bring out Halloween products as early as August. Halloween isn’t just known for its free candy and scary costumes. There is much history behind the tradition. Centuries into human history, Halloween originally started as a celebration in Ireland and many other European countries as a way to ward off evil spirits by wearing masks. Halloween has many similar holidays that are nationally recognized in their respective nations, for example, Day of the Dead is celebrated and nationally recognized in most Spanish countries.

There are indeed differences to Halloween and other holidays, but there are still the same principles. Halloween is more of a holiday for the children, rather than a religious holiday. Kids get free candy every year, see scary decorations, and dress up like their favorite super hero or like ninjas, ghosts, and goblins. It’s giving a gift to kids by giving them free candy and letting them have a great night (not so much great next morning). Even though it’s not a religious holiday, it should still be recognized because it’s a part of childhood for kids worldwide.

The problems with making Halloween a nationally recognized holiday are with the schools for the most part. Schools do have to have a certain number of school days and making Halloween nationally recognized would take off a day. The way to work around that is if we were to take two days off for Halloween; the actual day and the day after. This lets kids have an off day before going back to school and to let them have fun staying up all night. The only way this would happen, though, is if the school would take regular student holidays off the calendar in May or the one in October and replace them with this two day Halloween break. Either that or take two days from our summer, which is probably an easier solution.

Many ideas have been tossed around on how to fix the school issue with making Halloween nationally recognized. My solutions are some of the few ways I see Halloween working as a nationally recognized holiday. The important thing is that we at least think about it. Halloween is a big holiday in many other countries and the majority love celebrating it. It’s not just about making it nationally recognized, but about learning its history as we do with Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and the 4th of July. I will say this: if Halloween does ever get to be a nationally recognized holiday, it’d be the best treat one could ask for.