This year, Halloween falls on a Thursday. Maybe you have things to do in the afternoon or night, meetings to attend (either virtually or in person) or matters to oversee. If you have young children, you may want to accompany them on their “Trick or Treat” run. The inevitable sugar rush that follows will make it very challenging to arrive to school on time on Friday.

Young adults also like to have fun on Halloween. There has not been a lot of research on productivity on “All Saints Day”, but hangovers and tired eyes and limbs are not unusual for those who show up at the office after partying on Oct. 31.

A few years ago, an internet petition in the United States called for moving Halloween to the last Saturday of October, thereby providing more time for kids and adults to recover. When we asked in 2019, just over two in five Canadians (41 per cent) liked the idea. By 2022, support for a yearly Halloween on Saturday increased to 44 per cent.

In 2024, we are back where we started from, with 41 per cent of Canadians (down three points) welcoming the idea of a set weekday for Halloween, and 44 per cent (up five points) decrying........

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