Mischief Night

Mischief Night is an informal holiday on which children and teens engage in pranks and minor vandalism. While its name and date vary from place to place, it is most commonly held near the end of October to coincide with Halloween.^[1]

Historical background

The earliest reference to Mischief Night is from 1790 when a headmaster encouraged a school play which ended in "an Ode to Fun which praises children's tricks on Mischief Night in most approving terms".^[2] In the United Kingdom, these pranks were originally carried out as part of May Day celebrations, but when the industrial revolution caused workers to move to urban areas, Mischief Night shifted to November 4, the night before Guy Fawkes Night. According to one historian, "May Day and the Green Man had little resonance for children in grimy cities. They looked at the opposite end of the year and found the ideal time, the night before the gunpowder plot."^[2] In Germany, Mischief Night is still celebrated on May 1.

Naming variations

In the United States, Mischief Night is commonly held on October 30, the night before Halloween. The separation of Halloween tricks from treats seems to have only developed in certain areas, often appearing in one region but not at all nearby.^[3] In New Jersey's Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Warren, and Union counties, as well as in Philadelphia; Delaware; Westchester County, New York; and Fairfield County, Connecticut, it is referred to as "Mischief Night". In some towns in Northern New Jersey and parts of New York State, it is also known as "Goosey Night".^[4]

In rural Niagara Falls, Ontario, during the 1950s and 1960s, Cabbage Night referred to the custom of raiding local gardens for leftover rotting cabbages and hurling them about to create mischief in the neighborhood. Today, the night is commonly known as "Cabbage Night" in parts of Vermont; Connecticut; Bergen County, New Jersey; Upstate New York; Northern Kentucky; Newport, Rhode Island; Western Massachusetts; and Boston, Massachusetts.^[5]

It is known as "Gate Night" in New Hampshire, Trail, British Columbia, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Rockland County, New York, North Dakota and South Dakota, as "Mat Night" in Quebec, Canada, and as "Devil's Night" in many places throughout Canada, Michigan, and western Pennsylvania.^[3]

Mischief night is known in Yorkshire as "Mischievous Night", "Miggy Night", "Tick-Tack Night", "Corn Night", "Trick Night", or "Micky Night", and is celebrated on November 4 on the eve of Bonfire Night. In some areas of Yorkshire, it is extremely popular among thirteen-year-olds as they believe it to be a sort of "coming of age ceremony". This may be because Guy Fawkes was born in York, the capital of Yorkshire.^[6]

Contemporary practice

Mischief Night tends to include popular tricks such as toilet papering yards and buildings, powder-bombing and egging cars, people, and homes, using soap to write on windows, "forking" yards, setting off fireworks, and smashing pumpkins and jack-o'-lanterns.^[3] Local grocery stores often refuse to sell eggs to pre-teens and teens around the time of Halloween for this reason. Occasionally, the damage can escalate to include the spray-painting of buildings and homes.^[7] Less destructive is the prank known as "Knock, Knock, Ginger", "Ding-Dong Ditch", "knock down ginger", or "knock-a-door-run", in which children ring doorbells or knock on doors and then run and hide.

In some areas of Queens, New York, Cabbage Night has included throwing rotten fruit at neighbors, cars, and buses. Pre-teens and teens filled eggs with Neet and Nair and throw them at unsuspecting individuals. In the mid-1980s, garbage was set on fire and cemeteries were set ablaze. In Camden, New Jersey, Mischief Night escalated to the point that in the 1990s widespread arson was committed, with over 130 arsons on the night of October 30, 1991.^[8]

Angels' Night

In Detroit, Michigan, which was particularly hard-hit by Devil's Night arson and vandalism throughout the 1980s, many citizens take it upon themselves to patrol the streets to deter arsonists and those who may break the law. This is known as "Angels' Night". Some 40,000 volunteer citizens patrol the city on Angels' Night, which usually runs October 29 through October 31, around the time most Halloween festivities are taking place.^[9]

Media

In the 1994 film The Crow, the protagonist and his fiancée are murdered on the eve of their Halloween wedding on "Devil's Night" by a street gang on the orders of Detroit's most notorious crime lord, Top Dollar. With the help of a mystical crow, Eric returns from the grave on "Devil's Night" exactly one year later to exact revenge against the crime lord and his henchmen.

A 1999 episode of Rocket Power explores the joys of Mischief Night in The Night Before.

A 2006 film, Mischief Night, is based on events surrounding this night in Leeds, UK.^[10][11]

Two horror films with the same title released in 2013, Mischief Night directed by Richard Schenkman and Mischief Night directed by Travis Baker.^[12]

See also

• List of practical joke topics

References

External links

• Confessions from a Mischief Night brat BBC Yorkshire report — November 2006
• Police Patrol for Mischief Night BBC Merseyside report — November 2006
• Dialect Survey Results US terms;prevalence and distribution