By Piper Weiss
Halloween is a time to be thankful… that you don’t live in Walnut, California.
Trick-or-treaters in that town need a permit to wear a mask. The code strictly states: “No person shall wear a mask or disguise on a public street without a permit from the sheriff,” according to Idiot Laws. So before you can even plan a costume, you have to plan a visit to the police precinct.
In Belleville, Illinois, you can’t even trick-or-treat if you’re in high school. The mayor of the county signed an ordinance banning kids past eight grade from asking for candy. “We were hearing more and more about bigger kids knocking on doors after 9 at night, and the people who lived in the homes were scared,” the Mayor told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We believe that Halloween is for little children.”
Several townships in Virginia agree, banning kids over 12 from participating in the sweet-treat soliciting.
In several towns in Oklahoma, celebrating Halloween on October 30, is encouraged this year.
Oklahoma City, Edmond, Midwest City and Yukon are all making the official day this Saturday, instead of Sunday, a school night. “We felt it was more convenient for families to do it on Saturday, and it only meant moving it one day earlier,” one local Sheriff told The Oklahoman.
In Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Sundays are off limits for trick-or-treaters too. “If October 31 shall be a Sunday, such going from door to door and house to house for treats shall take place on the evening of October 30 between the hours of 6:00 p.m., prevailing time, and 8:00 p.m., prevailing time.” That last part, the 6 to 8 window of trick-or-treating, however, is upheld every year. After 8pm, the candy-thon stops, by law.
Halloween celebrations during school hours was banned in a Seattle suburb in 2004 as well as in Los Altos, California in 1995. Both grew out of religious sensitivity. In California, it was out of respect for Christian Fundamentalists. In Washington, it was on behalf of Wiccans who were tired of the negative portrayal of witches.
Don’t expect to see any Grim Reaper or Blues Brothers costumes in Dublin, Georgia. It’s against the law to wear hoods or sunglasses. A law states: “It shall be unlawful for any person to be and appear on any of the public streets of the city or in any of the public places of the city wearing a mask, hood or other apparel or regalia in such manner as to conceal his identity, or in such manner that his face is not fully visible, or in such manner that he may not be recognized.” Thankfully, kids under 16 aren’t subject to the rule.
And Marie Antoinette is off the table in Merryville, Missouri, where women are banned from wearing corsets. The age old law is designed to prevent women from denying men “the privilege of admiring the curvaceous, unencumbered body of a young woman should not be denied to the normal, red-blooded American male.” But men are subject to some laws too. Like no goofy mustaches that make people laugh in Alabama churches. And male staff-members of the Nevada Legislature are banned from wearing penis costumes while the legislature is in session. There’s got to be a back-story behind that one.
You think these laws are dumb, click here to see more laws that dosen’t make sense!
