Facial Hair Means You Care.

Happy Halloween. October 31st is an important day and the candy collection-athon is the perfect transition from October to November.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Given the downturn in breast cancer mortality BCAM appears to have a positive effect. This year BCAM was very prominent. Professional football players wore pink gloves, pink shoes, pink sweat towels and pink jock straps (OK I made up the pink sweat towel and did no research about the pink jock strap).  There were Breast Cancer Awareness walks, with seas of pink clad warriors educating communities one step at a time. There were even free market Breast Cancer Awareness opportunities. The message of knowledge (ignorance is not bliss) and community (don't go it alone) was everywhere.

Show Your 'Stache.

source: morgueFile

Tomorrow is the 1st day of November or should I say Movember. Just as October has become as pink as a bay girl's nursery for breast cancer awareness, the movement is for Movember to be full of facial hair for prostate cancer (and other men specific cancers) awareness. Just as families should be aware and supportive of issues surrounding breast cancer, families should be aware and supportive regarding prostate cancer. So grow, groom or apply your mustache and give prostate cancer the finger. Just don't give prostate cancer the finger the way my doctor does.  My doctor uses a glove and lubricant. I don't really like the way my doctor gives prostate cancer the finger, but so far for me, it works.

Hallowhen?

As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Bush administration made one of it's wisest decisions of either term (the list of wise decisions of the Bush administration is a short list, but I digress). Beginning in 2007, the end of daylight saving time was pushed back one week, from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November. The big deal? It allowed another hour of daylight for trick or treat. An extra hour of sunlight means it's a bit warmer for trick or treat. It's also one less hour of kids daring between parked cars. Now, it's time to complete the task started in 2005.

source: morgueFile

Consider The Source.

The observance of Halloween has a long history. Here in the western world there is a tie to All Saints Day (November 1) with All Hallows Eve (Halloween, October 31) being the night before All Saints Day.  The modern practice of kids running around the neighborhood collecting a month's worth of sugar fix or college kids dressed in "costumes" that hide nothing is not a celebration of saints or the hallowed. I'm not against kids and candy or college kids and body paint; to each their own. It's time to change the date of the modern celebration of Halloween. Why not the last
Saturday/Sunday/weekend in October?

The Calendar Can Be Changed.

Some of the most sacred days on our calendar are not fixed to a date. Memorial Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving do not have a fixed date. For most of my life Veterans Day was celebrated on the Monday closest to November 11.  Washington's Birthday has morphed into Presidents Day, celebrated on the third Monday in February. So why do we have young children out after dark on a school night merely to collect candy?

Disclaimer.

By no means do I espouse changing the day or celebration of All Saints Day and the accompanying All Hallows Eve for those that celebrate All Saints Day. As for the rest of us, move Halloween to the weekend.