Although Halloween is nearing and themed candy is already on sale, Rep. Tim Larson, D-East Hartford,  is retiring his proposal to move Halloween to Saturday.

Instead, he is working on creating more jobs for veterans.

“My focus is about veterans, not Halloween,” Larson said Thursday. “I still believe in it [Halloween date change], but am not actively pursuing it.”

Last year, Larson argued moving trick-or-treating to a weekend would spare parents the headache of running home from work to get their kids ready for trick or treating, and then to bed for an early school and work morning. He had wanted to bring up the legislation during the October special session on jobs because jobs are created by the holiday, but the idea was dismissed at by his Republican colleagues and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Larson introduced the proposal a week before the holiday last year, which was largely canceled by the freak October snow storm which left many without power for more than a week.

In this statement outlining his proposal, Larson says it’ll be safer to celebrate the non-federal holiday on a weekend since kids can go trick-or-treating in the daytime.

“Saturday allows for kid-friendly daytime events and the youngest goblins can begin their candy trek a little earlier when visibility is better,” Larson wrote.

Larson’s potential calendar-revising bill was quickly dismissed by the governor’s office. Malloy “is worried about confusing the ghosts, goblins, and witches, so he thinks leaving Halloween on Oct. 31 is the right thing to do” Malloy’s spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said last year. “No disrespect intended towards Rep. Larson, of course.”

“Every year, the government signs a proclamation for Thanksgiving to be held the fourth Thursday of November,” Larry Perosino, Larson’s spokesman, said Wednesday. “So that was suggested [for Halloween]. The governor wasn’t interested in that at the time.”

Since Halloween isn’t a federal holiday, states have jurisdiction to move the date of celebration.

This year Halloween falls on a Wednesday.

Would Malloy be willing to change his mind?

Juliet Manalan, Malloy’s spokeswoman, reiterated Malloy’s disapproval of the idea Wednesday.

It’s unclear if the Halloween-related revenue which amounts to $7 billion annually, according to the National Retail Federation, would increase if the holiday was moved.

What is clear, is that Larson has moved on.