(CNN) Americans long have used petitions to try to solve the nation's thorniest problems, and now a really weighty issue has landed atop the stack: moving Halloween to the weekend.

The change.org petition , addressed to President Donald Trump, wants the US to celebrate Halloween on the last Saturday of October instead of October 31. Nearly 40,000 people had signed it by midmorning Tuesday.

"It's time for a safer, longer, stress-free celebration!" reads the petition, created by the Halloween & Costume Association. "Let's move Halloween to the last Saturday of October!"

Holidays can be moved. For instance, Congress in 1968 declared that certain holidays -- Memorial Day, Labor Day and Columbus Day among them -- would take place on designated Mondays , thus creating a series of three-day weekends.

But Halloween is not a federal holiday, and the White House is under no obligation to do anything with the petition -- though cementing a calendar change may not actually be its organizers' intention.

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