For almost a year now I’ve been wondering: When are we going to celebrate Halloween 2007? Last year it was on a Tuesday, so the logical thing to do was party the previous Thursday through Halloween Tuesday. But I started thinking, what will people do when Halloween is exactly in the middle of the week?

Apparently I am not the only one with this concern. There are already a few Facebook groups, one with over 1,200 members, dedicated to deciding when we should celebrate our most cherished holiday. So when do you think we should celebrate it?

As I see it, there are three possibilities.

First, we could celebrate the weekend before. This means the parties would obviously begin on Thursday, Oct. 25, because Thursday is the new Friday. I assume everyone would party each night until we finish off with a large celebration on Halloween, Wednesday, Oct. 31. One benefit of celebrating the weekend before: We get a long week of raging. This involves some midweek partying, but it would give us locals a chance to have a few nights on our own. People not from around here do not always understand our unique lifestyle and they tend to get in trouble.

A downside of having the celebrations the week before is many people have midterms this week. Also, how the hell are you supposed to come up with seven different costumes? So on to our second option, celebrating the weekend after. This means we rage hard from the Wednesday night of Halloween through the following Saturday night, Nov. 3. This option allows four nights of mayhem.

Partying after Halloween probably seems more manageable and practical to most people. But you know what? We are not most people. We are proud students of the greatest party school in the world. Celebrate only the four nights after Halloween? Fuck that.

Students recently voted on these options in the Facebook group: “Halloween 2007.” The results at the time of this article are 594 for the weekend before and 195 for the weekend after. So three-fourths of our school says before, but what about the one-fourth that wants it after? Although they are the minority, that is still a large chunk of people.

I say appease them both.

The third option is to rage hard for over a week straight. We start it off with a typical, fun-filled Thursday night on Oct.25. We hit the horseshit-covered, floodlight-filled streets of Del Playa Drive on Friday and Saturday nights in costumes. Invite your friends to this prior weekend, but make sure you keep an eye on them. For those of us who have midterms, take a night or two off between Sunday and Tuesday and prepare for what’s to come. For those of us who major in communication, sociology or go to Santa Barbara City College: Keep partying every night. Regardless of how you choose to spend Sunday through Tuesday, unite to party-hardy on Wednesday. This should be the night that everyone, locals and visitors alike go all out. The sluttiest and funniest costumes, the most blacked-out moments and the most consumption of alcohol. Get crunk on Halloween and hope that you don’t get arrested. Then, instead of spending the days following Halloween posting pictures on Facebook and piecing together drunken adventures, keep it going. Continue partying Thursday through Saturday. This gives us locals a chance to actually walk down DP and find a party that might still have booze.

No need to wonder or worry anymore about Halloween’s location in the middle of the week. We shouldn’t wish that Halloween was on a Saturday or any other “more convenient” day. Be happy that this year we get to celebrate even longer. Share costumes with your friends and go to thrift stores to create cheap and funny outfits. Start planning now because we have a long week of partying coming up.