Halloween always causes a dilemma when it falls on a Sunday. In Utah, where many parents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and don't participate in certain activities on Sunday, trick-or-treating on the Sabbath is often seen as a no-no.
Many LDS families bump up the holiday to Saturday night to avoid the Sabbath day conflict. This basically means many non-LDS residents have to follow suit or their kids will have no one to trick-or-treat with on actual Halloween. Many people won't even be handing out candy on Halloween because they already participated in "Mormon Halloween."
This is a decision each family has to make, but I can see both sides on this one. On the one hand, if you think Sunday is reserved for worship and activities that strengthen your spiritual beliefs, then trick-or-treating probably shouldn't make the cut.
Sure, you could dig down to the core of Halloween to argue that it's not a good idea to celebrate a pagan holiday on the Sabbath. But the real question then is whether you should ever participate in a pagan holiday focused on the return of dead spirits.
On the other side of the issue, I have friends who say trick-or-treating on Sunday isn't as big a deal as some people make it. If you go with your family to knock on a few neighbors' doors, how is that different than any other family activity on a Sunday? You dress the kiddies up in a ridiculous costume, visit with neighbors and then come home to persuade your kids to give you a Kit-Kat bar.
Will you let your children trick-or-treat on Sunday this year? If you're sticking to the Saturday night substitute, will you hand out candy to those who do come knocking on Halloween?
To read more from Erin Stewart's Just4Mom blog, visit DeseretNews.com and click on "Blogs."