Mischief Night is an informal holiday on which children, teenagers and adults engage in jokes, pranks, vandalism, or parties.[1] It is known by a variety of names including Devil's Night, Gate Night, Goosey Night, Moving Night, Cabbage Night, Mystery Night and Mat Night.[2]
The earliest use of the phrase 'mischief night' comes 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".[3] The concept of Mischief Night is certainly older though, as Puritan Philip Stubbs decries the May Day Eve mischief night as early as 1583.[4]
In some regions in England, these pranks originated as part of 'Bringing in the May' on May Day Eve, but gradually shifted to later in the year. Dates vary in different areas, with some marking it traditionally on 4th November (the night before Bonfire Night), or the 30th October (the night before Halloween), though the latter is more common nowadays.[5][6][7][8]
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."[3] However, the shift only happened in the late 19th century and is described by the Opies as "one of the mysteries of the folklore calendar".[9]
In rural Niagara Falls, Ontario, during the 1950s and 1960s, "Cabbage Night" (French: Nuit de Chou) referred to the custom of raiding local gardens for leftover rotting cabbages and hurling them about to cause mischief in the neighbourhood. The night is still celebrated in Ontario.
Some parts of the country hold a Mischief Night on 30 October, 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 regions.[10] It is known in WelshasNoson Ddrygioni and in Scottish GaelicasOidhche nan Cleas.[11][12][13][14]
Mischief Nights are sometimes also held on May Day Eve, as part of 'Bringing in the May.' It was historically common for that night to involve playing pranks on neighbors, gathering flowers and greenery for May morning, making loud noise with gunfire or horns, and having sex.[4]
In parts of Yorkshireas"Mischievous Night" or the shortened "'Chievous Night" "Miggy Night", "Tick-Tack Night", "Corn Night", "Trick Night" or "Micky Night" [15] In some areas of Yorkshire, it is extremely popular among 13-year-olds, as they believe it to be a sort of "coming of age ceremony".[16]
In and around the city of Liverpool, Mischief Night is known locally as "Mizzy Night"; trouble areas were being patrolled by the Merseyside Police in 2015.[17]
Baltimore (Maryland) traditionally refers the night as "Moving Night" due to the custom of exchanging or stealing porch furniture and other outside items.[22]
InDetroit, which was particularly affected by Devil's Night arson and vandalism throughout the 1980s, many citizens took it upon themselves to patrol the streets to deter arson and other crimes. Started in 1997 as an initiative to combat the legacy of Devil's Night, "Angels' Night" usually ran October 29 through October 31 with up to 40,000 volunteers on patrol, around the time most Halloween festivities were taking place.[23] However, official city support for Angels' Night patrolling was discontinued in 2018 after arson had declined significantly.[24]
Mischief Night is generally recognized as a New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland and Delaware, phenomenon.[25]
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[clarification needed], setting off fireworks and smashing pumpkins and jack-o'-lanterns.[10] Local grocery stores often refuse to sell eggs to children and teenagers around the time of Halloween for this reason. Occasionally the damage can escalate to include the spray-painting of buildings and homes.[26] Less destructive is the prank known as "Ding-dong ditch".
In New Orleans, from 2014 to 2018,[27] Mischief Night involved a series of unruly parade-like riots.[28] According to participants, the Mischief Night 'krewes' follow in New Orleans' carnival's centuries-old tradition of 'walking parades', most of which take place in the lead-up to Mardi Gras. Mixing revelry with mindless violence, Mischief Night parades involve thematic floats and costumes as well as targeted vandalism and fires. Targets of vandalism, attacks and arson have included the police, bystanders and property.[29]
When asked in an interview from 2017 how Mischief Night in New Orleans fits into the context of carnival, a parader replied "Our Carnival traditions are those that actually want to 'turn the world upside down'."[30] After a parade through downtown in 2016 that saw bonfires in the street, police cars hit with paint and the Battle of Liberty Place Monument chipped away at with a sledgehammer, another participant wrote:
There is no longer a middle ground; that's been seized for luxury condos. The choice is stark: we either collectively build a more combative spiritual practice or we collude in ceding our ritual spaces of encounter to the oppressors.[31]
In some areas of Queens, New York, Cabbage Night has included throwing rotten fruit at neighbors, cars and buses. Children and teenagers fill eggs with Neet and Nair hair remover 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 more than 130 arson attacks on the night of October 30, 1991.[32]
Word of Mischief Night began to appear in U.S. newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s and told of those who were celebrating wanting to put distance between the wholesome night of trick or treating and the chaotic night of causing havoc around the town. Some believed that the stress of the Great Depression was causing people to act out and this is what caused Mischief night to break out at that time.[33][tone]
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" one year later to exact revenge against the crime lord and his henchmen.[34]
A different horror film was released in 2014, also called Mischief Night and directed by Travis Baker.[39]
Orange Is the New Black: In season 6, episode 5, the main characters are subjected to pranks throughout the episode because of "Mischief Night".[40]
Are You Afraid of the Dark?, season 1 episode 4 "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" opens on Mischief Night and plays an important role in the plot of the episode.[41]
NCIS Season 7 Episode 5 "Code of Conduct", the dead body of a prankster is found on Mischief Night. [42]
