While the rest of Canada is divided on whether Halloween should be permanently moved to a Saturday, most British Columbians don’t seem to be on board.
Only 31 per cent of B.C. respondents said in a recent Research Co. poll that they would want Halloween festivities to be moved from Oct. 31 to the last Saturday of the month.
Overall, 41 per cent of respondents across Canada said they support the idea while 42 per cent said they don’t agree and 16 per cent said they were undecided.
READ MORE: Petition calls to move Halloween
A petition in the U.S. calling for congress to officially change the holiday date, garners timely attention each spooky season since it was started by Michael Wyatt three years ago. As of Wednesday morning it had 20,000 signatures.
“While most Quebecers (53 per cent) welcome the idea of observing Halloween on Saturdays, the rest of the country is not as excited,” Research Co. president Mario Canseco said in a news release Wednesday.
Respondents to this survey were also asked about five specific types of costumes that children or adults could wear for Halloween.
More than half of respondents said they believe that two types of children’s costumes are inappropriate: those who represent an ethnic stereotype, or 57 per cent, and those that change the colour of the child’s skin, at 51 per cent.
Forty-seven per cent of respondents said that children’s costumes that include a toy weapon are inappropriate while 33 per cent said they disagree with costumes that represent a social stereotype, such as a jailbird or vagabond.
Forty-four per cent said they don’t support with costumes that refer to a culture that is not the adult’s own. That support rose to 57 per cent among B.C. respondents.
@ashwadhwani
ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
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