Not that long ago, kids went trick or treating on Halloween, just like we celebrated Christmas on Christmas and Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving. Sure, it'd be more convenient perhaps to celebrate Thanksgiving on a Saturday, but still we do it on Thursday.

Trick or treat for some reason is now always on a Saturday or Sunday, even when Halloween is on a Wednesday. Now, I get why we'd want to have kids trick or treating in daylight -- thanks to speed demon drivers and the sick minds that target children.

However, in helping to compile trick or treat times this year, I realized that some neighborhoods scheduled their trick or treat times in the evening on Friday or Saturday. And this is where the rationalization for our over-complication of Halloween trick or treating confused me. (Further potential for complication derives from the fact that many neighborhoods in Milwaukee -- including mine -- have a trick or treat time that differs from the official City of Milwaukee time. Most years that results in our doorbell ringing two days in a row ... one day with the neighborhood kids and one day with the kids driven in to the neighborhood by their parents. Mysteriously, this year no kids rang on Sunday between 1 and 4.)

If kids can trick or treat in the dark on Saturday, why can't they trick or treat in the dark on Wednesday? I took my child out during the "official" neighborhood trick or treat time and it was dark even before we left the house.

Switching the time and date for safety's sake makes perfect sense and I'd make no argument against that, although it is a sad commentary on our times, perhaps. But changing the date for no apparent purpose just seems like evidence of our inability to leave well enough alone and contemporary society's lack of respect for tradition.