OPINION: Take a day off after Halloween

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Some students decide to trick-or-treat the weekend before Halloween because the holiday is on a Monday.

By Christine Kim,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Although Halloween is an unofficial holiday, many students believe the day after Halloween should be a school holiday.

Whether it’s trick-or-treating or partying, Halloween celebrations generally occur at night. As a result, when Halloween falls on a weekday– such as on Monday this year– it creates all sorts of conflicts for tired students, hurting their well-being.

For example, when students eat chocolate late at night (as is tradition on Halloween), it can be difficult for them to fall asleep.

According to the Hershey Company, a typical Hershey bar contains about 30 milligrams of caffeine, whereas a cup of decaffeinated coffee has about 10 milligrams. This caffeine can cause sensitive sleepers to stay up much later than normal.

Senior Puja Chaudhary remembers experiencing difficulty focusing the day after Halloween from headaches induced by lack of sleep.

“We should have the day after Halloween off, because I got headaches from too much candy,” Chaudhary said.

Junior Vanessa Jiang also believes that a day off after Halloween is necessary for all students.

“Although not everyone celebrates it, having a school holiday the next day is more convenient to the many people who devote the time to celebrate it,” Jiang said.

Jiang recalls feeling exhausted the day after Halloween last year, and thought that the following weekend was helpful for her recovery.

“[My friends and I] were out really late on Halloween and got back around midnight. We were all so tired but we were really glad that Halloween was on a weekend so that we could sleep in the next day,” Jiang said.

Without a holiday the next day, many students will choose to do schoolwork rather than celebrate Halloween. Therefore, the lack of a holiday will affect the very spirit of Halloween– one of celebration, joy and happiness, not schoolwork.

On the other hand, biology teacher Timothy Peevyhouse strongly disagrees.

“I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but you are too old to trick or treat in high school. As far as the day off: […] we already have tons of holidays throughout the year,” Peevyhouse affirmed.

While Peevyhouse is correct about the abundance in breaks and holidays, we need to recognize that celebrating Halloween doesn’t discriminate based on age- if a high-schooler isn’t trick or treating, they will probably celebrate the night in another way.

As a result, even with an abundance of holidays, the argument for a holiday the day after Halloween still stands- students need the extra day to recuperate and catch up on schoolwork and sleep.

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