No trick; treats served Sunday

Area cities stick with Oct. 31

— Six years ago, ghouls and goblins, caped crusaders and princesses roamed Arkansas streets seeking treats under the threat of tricks - not on Halloween, but on Oct. 30.

Halloween fell on Sunday in 2004, as it does this year, and several communities around the state have asked residents to celebrate a day early.

Nikki Cranford Thornton, executive director of the Malvern/Hot Spring County Chamber of Commerce, which is putting on Malvern Merchants Trick or Treat on Main Street, said she’s not sure how long the city has been observing Halloween on Saturday instead of Sunday or how the practice came to be. “We’ve been doing it for years,” she said.

“I don’t know if churches requested it,” Thornton said. “It’s just a good thing to do. We’re a church-oriented community and on Sunday night a lot of people attend church and there’s also fall festivals that some churches are doing.”

Other Arkansas cities celebrating Halloween on Saturday rather than Sunday include Bald Knob, Bryant, Delight, Dover, Guy, Heber Springs, Hope, Malvern, McRae, Monticello, Newport, Quitman, Russellville, Pine Bluff, Pottsville and Sheridan.

In Fayetteville, All Hallow’s Eve revelers have been asking when the little masked trickor-treaters should make their neighborhood rounds.

“My phone has been ringing off the hook about that,” said Julianne Darnell, a Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce employee who manages its public outreach efforts.

She hasn’t quite known what to tell them.

“There’s not a governing body of Halloween,” Darnell said with a laugh Monday. “The city doesn’t make any kind of declaration about that - but you might verify that with the mayor’s office.”

The Fayetteville mayor’s office administrator, Lana Broyles, said her office has gotten its share of calls on the Saturday or Sunday question.

Fayetteville learned its lesson when the celebration fell on Sunday, Oct. 31, 1993. Folks thought it would be a good idea not to celebrate Halloween on its actual date, but the plan turned out to be a boo-boo.

“So many people didn’t get the word,” Broyles said.

That left some children trick-or-treating a day early and others on Oct. 31, she said. Residents who were caught off guard - without treats - phoned Fayetteville City Hall to register their displeasure.

“Pretty much every year since then, the mayors have decided it’s much less confusing and complicated” to simply not change the celebration, Broyles said.

Likewise, cities including Little Rock, North Little Rock, Rogers, Lowell and Harrison have not asked residents to observe Halloween on Saturday rather than Sunday.

Harrison - home of the Goblins of Harrison High School - is taking the handsoff approach.

“We don’t take a stand on that - we let the community decide,” said Christeen Waters, the mayor’s administrative assistant.

A number of churches inHarrison have taken the lead by offering safe Halloween parties in place of their usual Sunday night services, she said.

Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore said his office had received a few calls, but “we’ll remain consistent with what we’ve done in the past” and observe the celebration on the day it falls, he said.

Moore noted that his son would be attending a church festival.

The Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce made an official declaration some time ago that the two cities will observe Halloween “on the holiday itself, Sunday the 31st,” according to an events e-mail it sends to subscribers.

Janine Springer, the Rogers-Lowell chamber’s chief financial officer, noted that other Halloween events will occur Halloween weekend. The Goblin Parade will commence at 3:30 p.m. Friday in downtown Rogers, and the city’s Pinnacle Hills Promenade mall will have its Spooktacular Costume Prowl at 2 p.m. Sunday, with trick-ortreating at stores at 4 p.m.

The Fayetteville Visitor’s Bureau will host a similar event, its 9th annual Trick or Treat on the Square, at 3 p.m. Friday.

In Batesville, Paula Grimes, executive director of Main Street Batesville, said she didn’t know if area churches had any unified opposition to celebrating Halloween on Sunday.

“I don’t know that that’s ever been an issue,” she said. “We just choose to do it on Saturday because we don’t want to interfere with people’s church time. Plus, it’s the only day that a lot of merchants have off too.”

Batesville plans a downtown Halloween celebration 5-7 p.m. Saturday, she said.

Halloween’s origin dates back to the Celtic calendar that placed Oct. 31 as the last day of the year. On that night, witches, warlocks and evil spirits supposedly wandered the earth. People wore costumes to ward off evil spirits. Before 2004, the last time Halloween fell on a Sunday was 1999.

Howard Turney, director of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s School of Social Work, said an aversion for celebrating Halloween on Sunday is commonplace but may seem otherwise because the phenomenon happens so infrequently.

“We’re in the Bible Belt - in the South, where there are many conservative religions that focus more on the religious aspects of particular days,” he said.

In Shannon Hills, Mayor James Smith said he received calls from about 150 residents asking that Halloween not be observed on Sunday. The city has no organized event planned.

“It will be like regular Halloween, just on Sunday,” Smith said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/26/2010

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