What happened with the Halloween badges?

It was pretty chaotic with the Halloween badges this year. What happened?

Garmin had moved the start and end date for the usual Halloween badges to October 31 2022 which made them visible as available. On October 22 Garmin changed the dates for those badges back to 2021, but didn't set an end date. Not setting an end date will stop the badge from being time limited and they will still be visible as available. That doesn't mean they really are available in the Garmin backend. The start and end dates only controls the frontend (presentation in the apps and web). We don't know the settings in the backend and the dates in the backend are what really control whether the badges will be awarded or not.

At the same time as Garmin moved the dates back to 2021 they made a new badge available: Halloween 2022. That is what Garmin has done with most badges for holidays and festivals this year (removed the usually yearly badges and added a new one):

• 3 badges for Songkran festival became Songkran Festival 2022
• 3 badges for Golden Week became Golden Week 2022
• Take the Work Out of Work became International Worker's Day 2022
• 3 badges for Dragon boat festival became Dragon Boat Festival 2022
• Across the sky became Tanabata Festival 2022
• Under a full moon became Mid-Autumn Festival 2022

• Loy Krathong will become Loy Krathong 2022
• 2 badges for Thanksgiving will become Thanksgiving 2022
• Winter Solstice will become Winter Solstice 2022

I believe that Garmin never intended the Halloween badges to be visible, but since they were visible many users believed they should be awarded with those badges and started lots of discussions about it and contacted Garmin Support to get help.

What Garmin finally did to resolve the situation was to move the dates for the Halloween badges to 2023. That made those badges also available in 2022 and all earlier years. To be awarded with this year's Halloween badges you just need to make an edit (for example add 1 calorie) to an activity logged on October 31. To get the country specific badges you must change the country and then make an edit to the activity. One activity per badge. To get all four Halloween badges you must have logged four activities on Halloween.

The badge Share the Scare is still back in 2021 with a missing end date. Some users have contacted Garmin support to get the badge and they have been awarded with it, but I don't bother about it since I already got it multiple times from earlier years.

There is one thing I can't explain:

Why isn't the Share the Scare badge visible as available? It got no end date and should be visible. It disappeared from the list a few days after Halloween. I can see the Halloween badges as available in 2023.

What can we learn from this?

Garmin has made mistakes with the badges earlier and will likely do that again. In this case they tried to remove the four usual Halloween badges but ended up making them available. So, always do the required activities just in case. If they remove them one year then you still might be able to take them when Garmin move the dates to the next year.

It will be interesting to see what will happen with all those badges that weren't available this year. If Garmin decides to move the dates for them to 2023 they might become available for everyone to take in 2022 by just making an edit to an activity logged on the correct date.

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