What Do You Call The Night Before Hallowe'en?

If you said "October 30," you're not alone. But in some places, the night before Hallowe'en has other names.

• In Detroit and other places in Michigan, it's Devil's Night.
• In New Jersey's it's called Mischief Night...or Goosey Night, or even Cabbage Night.
• In Cincinnati it's also Mischief Night.
  
• In Washington state, some call it Devil's Eye.
• In some places, it's called Gate Night, a name that goes back decades.

The custom of trick or treating began in the 1930s precisely to stop what happens on October 30: once harmless pranks that turned destructive. In the 19th century, it was common for teens and even adults to hold costume parties on Hallowe'en. They'd play games like bobbing for apples (as is done in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown) and fortune-telling games, although most of the latter was carried out by young women hoping to find out the names of their future husband. (There were many ways of doing so, including peeling an apple, dropping hot lead into water, walking backward downstairs with a mirror in your hand, eating onions covered in salt, and more.) Later on, as depicted in the film Meet Me in St. Louis, children wandered around in costume pulling harmless pranks: dressing in old clothes, tossing flour in people's faces, tipping over outhouses (occupied as well as unoccupied), tying people's front and back gates up (hence Gate Night), soaping windows and tossing eggs at front doors. Gradually, the pranks became so destructive—fires were set, property was damaged, people were hurt—that it was outlawed altogether, and trick or treating substituted (with the relatively harmless pranks the last to vanish, the "trick" in trick or treat).

It wasn't long before the pranksters set up the night before Hallowe'en to play their tricks. Again, they started small and harmless, then became destructive, especially in cities where population was dwindling like Detroit, where so many fires were set in abandoned buildings one October 30 that the police and fire department couldn't keep up. Citizen patrols formed groups to stop the carnage, calling their force "Angels Night."

 

Souling and Other Old Hallowe'en Customs

Today Hallowe'en is best known for children "trick or treating" door to door or possibly going to a community center or church event, and adults having costume parties. The trick or treat tradition goes back centuries when the poor went door to door begging for food and were given "soul cakes." In exchange, the poor person would pray for the soul of someone who had passed on.

Soul Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 8 cups flour
• 2 cups milk
• 4 yeast cakes
• 8 egg yolks
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated orange rind
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 1/2 cup soft butter
• 1 teaspoon salt

Dissolve yeast cakes in 1/2 cup of the milk. Make thin sponge by mixing yeast with rest of milk and 1 cup of flour. Mix thoroughly, sprinkle top lightly with flour and set aside to rise. Add salt to egg yolks, beat until thick and lemon-colored. Add sugar, rinds, and mix with sponge. Add two cups of flour, alternating with the milk, and knead for half-hour

Add remaining flour and butter and continue to knead until the dough comes away from the hand. Set in warm place to rise until double in bulk. Separate dough into four parts, roll into long strips and braid into loaf. Brush top with lightly beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with poppy seed. Let rise. Bake in 350° oven for one hour.

From The Holyday Book by Francis X. Weiser, S.J.

Soul cakes were also given out near Christmas on December 21st, which was formerly St. Thomas' Day.

While everyone now associates hollowed-out pumpkins with frightening faces as "jack o'lanterns," the original "jack" was a huge, hollowed-out turnip that looked like this. The jack o'lantern custom was brought from Ireland, where pumpkins did not exist at that time. Photos of carved turnips from that time were quite creepy!

At Hallowe'en parties in the late 19th and early 20th century, it was almost de rigueur to perform fortune-telling games. Tea leaves (back before the days of tea bags) were read, hot lead was melted and dripped into cold water to form shapes, women walked backward with mirrors in order to see their future husbands, and more. Read about these games here!