It’s a propos that Halloween is celebrated a couple days before Election Day. We decided to see why the General Elections are held on the First Tuesday in November.

When we Googled it – it came  back with an excellent explanation:

It’s from the Federal Election Commission website: Here’s how they explain it:

“. . . For much of our history, America was a predominantly agrarian society. Law makers therefore took into account that November was perhaps the most convenient month for farmers and rural workers to be able to travel to the polls. The fall harvest was over, (remember that spring was planting time and summer was taken up with working the fields and tending the crops) but in the majority of the nation the weather was still mild enough to permit travel over unimproved roads.

Why Tuesday? Since most residents of rural America had to travel a significant distance to the county seat in order to vote, Monday was not considered reasonable since many people would need to begin travel on Sunday. This would, of course, have conflicted with Church services and Sunday worship.

Why the first Tuesday after the first Monday? Lawmakers wanted to prevent election day from falling on the first of November for two reasons. First, November 1st is All Saints Day, a Holy Day of Obligation for Roman Catholics. Second, most merchants were in the habit of doing their books from the preceding month on the 1st. Apparently, Congress was worried that the economic success or failure of the previous month might prove an undue influence on the vote!”

As far as Halloween it was celebrated in North America with solemn ceremonies in its earliest origins and then transformed into the lightheartedness and gaiety that we know of today.

I love seeing children dress up in the costumes – whether it’s scary or lighthearted –  this goes for the adults, too.

I’m going to make my own correlation between Election Day following so close behind Halloween.
Unfortunately when there are elections coming up, campaigning and attack ads can become very contentious.

Halloween is thrown into the mix to break up the tension. It’s hard to resist a little one walking down the street or knocking on your door with those three sweet words. “Trick or Treat!” Here’s hoping that on Halloween Day the Candidates running for office, we’ll take a que from the costumed little ones. Take time to have a little fun and unwind for at least that one day. You can get back to the last minute grind of campaigning the next day. Most people have already made up their minds as to who they are going to vote for.   I hope you had a good Halloween. C.M.