todd.jackson@roanoke.com 981-3253

Halloween falls on Sunday this year, and Roanoke city hall is hoping to avoid the trick it pulled on itself the last time the candy fest fell on the Christian Sabbath.

The city will observe Halloween on Sunday, Oct. 31.

"It's an easy decision," City Manager Darlene Burcham said. "Halloween should be practiced on Halloween."

A number of citizens have called the city inquiring about the city's Halloween plan, in part because of the confusion and frustration that occurred in 1999, said Communications Director Larry Brown.

Five years ago, the city had publicly announced that Halloween would be observed on its calendar date. But less than two weeks before it was to happen, Roanoke City Council abruptly voted to switch the Halloween observance to Saturday, Oct. 30.

Council members said at the time that they'd been inundated with calls from churchgoers who were upset that Halloween would be going on during evening worship services on the Christian Sabbath.

"Why would you want to go to church knowing that all these people razzed-up on candy will be running through your neighborhood?" the late Councilman Jim Trout said the day the switch was made.

The change quickly prompted complaints of unfairness from members of other religions. Others complained that the council's late decision interfered with scheduled plans and others said the council had no business designating holidays in the first place.

Nelson Harris, a Baptist minister and then the city's vice mayor, attempted to smooth over a messy situation after the fact by offering a public apology.

"Sometimes you go through things like this and you chalk it up to a learning experience," he said at a November 1999 council meeting.

Harris is now Roanoke's mayor and the only current council member who was involved in the 1999 situation. He couldn't be reached for comment Friday, but Burcham, who took over as city manager in 2000, said Harris concurred with the decision to leave the Halloween date alone this year.