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Does a Municipal Code Limit Trick-or-Treating to Children 12 and Younger?
A viral image of one municipal ordinance regarding Halloween activities left viewers wondering whether police were going to be hauling off bigger youngsters for trick-or-treating.
- PUBLISHED 11 OCTOBER 2018
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Claim
Laws in some areas limit trick-or-treating to children 12 and younger.
Rating
Mixture
About this rating
What's True
Some municipalities have laws on the books that establish maximum ages and time limits for Halloween night trick-or-treating activities.
What's False
Such laws are often old regulations that are rarely or seldom enforced by actually charging youngsters with violations.
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Origin
One of the common elements of the Halloween night trick-or-treat tradition is adults’ grumbling that some of the kids coming to their houses seeking candy are “too big” or “too old” for such an activity. Although there are no universal rules about who may engage in trick-or-treating — and some people feel everyone should be free to participate, including adults of all ages — general consensus seems to be that kids should be looking to enjoy Halloween activities other than collecting candy door-to-door once they reach middle or high school age.
As Halloween approached in 2018, many social media users began sharing (and questioning) what appeared to be a municipal ordinance for Chesapeake, Virginia, which limited “trick-or-treat activities” by law to children aged 12 and under:
This image does reproduce a section of Chesapeake’s
code of ordinances (enacted in 1970), which not only sets a maximum age for trick-or-treaters (12), but also establishes an end time for that activity on Halloween night (8:00 PM):
Sec. 46-8. – Trick or treat activities.
(a) If any person over the age of 12 years shall engage in the activity commonly known as “trick or treat” or any other activity of similar character or nature under any name whatsoever, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not less than $25.00 nor more than $100.00 or by confinement in jail for not more than six months or both.
(b) If any person shall engage in the activity commonly known as “trick or treat” or any other activity of similar character or nature under any name whatsoever after 8:00 p.m., he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not less than $10.00 nor more than $100.00 or by confinement in jail for not more than 30 days or both.
