by Phoenix, HSM team writer

Being in Home this Halloween season, seeing all the themed content being released with the promise of more to come, got me to thinking.

I thought about the fact that I hadn’t dwelt on Mischief Night in years: the night when mischief was encouraged, pranks and tricks were awaited and expected. As a child I celebrated Halloween with Charlie Brown and tricks or treats. My older sister and her friends got to go out after night fell as a teen, for Mischief Night. Traditionally these two night events are observed on separate nights, with Mischief Night being the 30^th and Halloween, of course, being the 31st. Where I grew up (Kentucky) they were observed on the same night, as they were in some places; that night was Halloween. The younger children would be lead out just before dusk, going from house to house in our neighborhood. Nightfall would see us little ones return home with or parents, and the older kids — brothers, sisters, what have you — were allowed out to create mischief.

It’s sad to think that these celebrations of childhood are no longer widely practiced. Both days and observances dating back hundreds of years as days for fun and frivolity have their foundations in Europe. The Celtic celebration of Samhain — the practice of honoring the dead — is where Halloween derives from, while Mischief Night can be traced back to as early as 1790 and the followers of a professor at St. Johns’ College Oxford England. Today they are all but outlawed in parts of the world – as a matter of fact, Mischief Night is outlawed in parts of our country, with Halloween becoming less and less of a tradition anymore. Mischief Night, as can happen, became sadly a terror for some cities; fires were set,with damage to property mounting in the hundreds of thousands dollars.

In the days when I grew up, it was harmless mischief. Soaping windows, egging a house that failed to pass out candy, toilet papering a tree; harmless, if a little more annoying for some than others. But it was tolerated in our part of the country. It’s a different story today.

In various parts of the world, the tradition of Mischief Night and Halloween are still observed, even after they were lost for a while to most of their observing society, first in England when the Protestant Reformation occurred. Mischief Night was attached to Guy Fawkes Day in November, and Halloween was not observed, as a way to separate it from its religious identity; being Catholic, All Saints day or All Souls Day, November 1, as it had become associated after Christianity swept Celtic England.

Some parts of Northern England and Ireland (along with Scotland) kept to these celebratory events and as immigrants came to the New World; they brought these traditions with them.  They eventually became blended into one activity, in some form being what we know now as Halloween. Through the years both activities have suffered a waning off and on.

I can still remember the fun that was had as a kid. I remember the rushing out before it got late, still just light enough to see everyone’s costumes, lots of plastic masks and cut-up pillowcases for ghost. I remember the chill in the air and the falling leaves rustling under foot and scattering down the sidewalk. I remember the idea of Halloween folklore filling my head. (Costumes were donned to confuse the spirits that were thought to be out and about that night. Food was left on the door step for those spirits in those days.) This tradition was replaced in modern times, and treats given to the costumed throngs at the door over the years.

I remember taking my son out in the same way I was lead: out and about before dark. I so enjoyed the holiday then. My son, alas, grew too old for the practice of tricks or treats — and where we live, Mischief Night is not allowed. He has recently seen images of Devil’s Night, Hell Night and the sad caricature the celebration of childhood and Mischief Night has become on the Internet. So while I will still have Charlie Brown to enjoy, I will have to be content roaming Home again, in my new costume, this Halloween. I will try and prank friends as best I can, in my personal spaces.

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One Response to “Mischief Night and Halloween”

1. ted2112 says:

   November 3, 2013 at 7:10 pm

   The night before Halloween in my neck of the woods was called Devils Night and it was the trick side of trick or treat. It was all harmless fun and most folks didn’t get to uptight about, nothing like Devil’s night in Detroit where they burned stuff!

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