What Do YOU Call It?

Individual police officers may have their own names for it, but growing up in New Jersey, we only knew two names for the night before Halloween: “Cabbage Night” and “Mischief Night.” In adulthood we learned that there are many, many more names, most of them tied to geographic regions, and that the practice of using this night for acts of minor vandalism extends back at least to the 19th century in the United Kingdom.

“Goosey Night” is a name used in the northeast, and “Devil’s Night” is heard in Michigan. “Tick-Tack Night” is used only around the Trenton, New Jersey, area – and in Yorkshire, England. In fact, the UK appears to be where the whole thing started. Beggar's Night, Doorbell Night, there are many more.

As an adolescent years ago, one October 30 we were enjoying a tour of the neighborhood with some friends – purely as an academic study, of course – when a patrol car rolled up and an officer jumped out to demand to know what we were doing. “Nothing” was probably the reply, but the cans of Silly String in our hands indicated otherwise.

Silly String was a brand-new product at the time, and the officer had never seen it previously. We demonstrated it to the him, and he took it back to the patrol car to show it to his partner. The two officers had as much fun with it as we did, shooting the Silly String around and laughing. Remarkably, they did not confiscate it, they gave it back to us. They must have concluded that we could have doing things much worse than decorating neighbors’ yards with Silly String.

In recent years there have been devastating October 30 fires in cities such as Camden and Detroit, so a little toilet paper in the trees or Silly String on the porch seems almost quaint. Like the name “Cabbage Night.”