Halloween falls on Friday this year, but not in Vicksburg.

Vicksburg and Warren County officials decided Thursday to ask parents to recognize the holiday and trick-or-treat on Thursday, Oct. 30, for safety reasons. Mayor Laurence Leyens also urged limitations on the ages of the participants.

“I have an obligation to provide safety,” said Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace. “I feel that can best be done if we move it to Thursday night.”

If you go

Trick-or-treating in the city and county will be from 6 until 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30. Only those children who are12 or younger are urged to participate.

 

On that Friday night, Warren Central and Vicksburg high schools will play football games at home, and it is VHS’ homecoming. That means a shortage of officers to patrol neighborhoods as is standard during trick-or-treat.

“In addition to the safety issues, when you do it on a Friday you get people who perhaps would not participate on a school night,” said Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent James Price. “Also when it is a school night parents will be more careful to get their kids in at a good time, rather than letting them stay out late.”

“I don’t believe the city government has any business changing a holiday, but if the sheriff and the police chief say things will be safer if we change it, that is fine,” said Leyens.

The mayor also asked that participation in trick-or-treating Halloween be limited to children 12 and younger.