When I grew up, we trick-r-treated on Beggars’ Night — October 30th, Halloween Eve. That was the norm in the Western New York section of the rust belt, and according to my Facebook feed last night, it’s still popular.
My husband, who’s from the Cincinnati loop of the rust belt, told me he never heard of Beggars’ Night. They called it Devils’ Night, which was less about scoring candy as it was about pulling off pranks.
Here in north Texas, I haven’t heard anyone talk about such nights. Trick-r-treating happens on the 31st, or is replaced with church and recreation center trunk-r-treating. Beggars’ Night is supposedly a thing in Houston, although I couldn’t find much to confirm this.
I was curious about the history of these alternative Halloween eve names. I was also feeling slightly guilty (panicked?) about not having a post ready for this week’s newsletter. I did claim it would be a weekly-ish newsletter, and the end of October is notoriously scarily busy (see what I did there? BOO!) with costume planning, birthdays, story-book parades, monsoon-like rains, and dizzying temperature changes, not to mention today’s now-broken thermostat. Sigh. Sure, there’s the rest of the week to send something out, but why not jump on the holiday bandwagon and explore some Halloween curiosity? I’ll let you decide if this is trick or treat.
A quick Google search will show you I’m not the first to wax poetic on the regional names for Halloween Eve. I find interesting that amidst the common names attributed to certain locales, there’s also variation. In a 2017 post, the Smithsonian online magazine suggests Cincinnatians call October 30th Cabbage Night — a label popular in New England, and not the Devil’s night my husband grew up with.
Several articles associate the haunted and fiery history of Devil’s Night with Detroit, while some may instead think of the book series by Penelope Douglas, or the shitty(??) album by hip-hop group D12.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey seem to claim Mischief Night, a term traced back to the eve of Britain’s May Day — which is not to be confused with how us Buffalo Sabres fans define “May Day”1.
In an article updated from last year, Mental Floss shares 10 regional names for Halloween eve, eight of ‘em I had never heard of. And on Reddit and Quartz you can find dated but fun maps of terms used across the U.S.. Shall we survey all cartographers to sketch us a modern version…??
Do you have a name for Halloween Eve?
How do you describe October 30th? Did you grow up with any of the more popular terms? Is there a less frequented one that you are familiar with? I’d love to hear about them, especially ones popular outside the States.
We’ll be doing our begging tonight…for chocolates and a couple get-outta-jail-free cards.
Happy Halloween!
w.
Sabres’ long-time play-by-play caller Rick Jeanneret was “Good. Scary Good!!”
My wife and I grew up in Southern California. We don’t remember Halloween Eve being a thing ever. Same with trunk or treat, which I hadn’t heard of until we moved to Texas.
Halloween, although not an official Indian holiday (we have plenty already), is really the only one I truly enjoy. If we are not dressing up we are driving around our part of Tennessee to see what creativity is on display this time. Didn’t know there were so many different names for Halloweens eve. Interesting. I would call the eve, “dare to watch a late night scary movie at the cinemas?” night.