Lawmakers reject bill moving Halloween celebration to last Friday in October

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have permanently moved the celebration of Halloween to the last Friday in October.

The bill made it to the Senate floor on Friday. However, opponents of S.C.R. 5 argued that they don’t need to be told when to celebrate a holiday.

“Are we going to move Thanksgiving to Friday because we have to take two days off school instead of one day off school?” asked Sen. Ann Millner (R-Ogden). 

“Halloween, as it currently exists, is an American achievement,” said Sen. Lincoln Fillmore (R-South Jordan). “And we should protect it by keeping our grubby mitts off it.”

Sen. Stephanie Pitcher (D-Salt Lake City) says the bill is making things more complicated than it needs to be.

“That sounds like a very hectic endeavor for a lot of parents that need to dress up their kids,” she said. 

Bill sponsor Sen. Kirk Cullimore (R-Sandy) says the idea was just to make things less disruptive for families during the week. 

“Certainly, right now as we saw last year, my school did decide to celebrate on Friday,” Cullimore said. “But it posed that problem of Monday was actually the day again. And so, there’s confusion about dressing up again at school.”

The Halloween bill failed to pass on a 9 to 16 vote.

There’s no word if this resolution will be revisited in another session.

Mark Jones contributed to this article.

Read more:

• Utah resolution proposing Friday designation for Halloween celebrations advances
• Lawmaker to introduce bill to permanently move Halloween to Friday