Halloween is a beloved holiday when children don festive costumes and travel door-to-door asking for treats. While Halloween is well-known, Mischief Night is more mysterious. The origins of Mischief Night, sometimes called Devil's Night, Cabbage Night or even Goosey Night, are unknown, though some believe that it goes back hundreds of years to the ancient origins of Halloween itself. Mischief Night gives license to play tricks or engage in some mild vandalism - as anyone who has had their front yard covered in toilet paper can attest. Mischief Night is a separate entity from the more G-rated Halloween.
The Celts of Great Britain are credited with starting many of the traditions associated with Halloween today. The Celts believed that spirits were able to come back and roam among the living, haunting them and playing tricks. This time was known as "Samhain." In preparation for Samhain, people dressed up in costumes, lit bonfires and left food out for the spirits. When Great Britain embraced Christianity, the region began celebrating All Saints' Day, a day to honor the dead that is now celebrated on November 1, one day after Halloween. As a result, much of the events associated with Samhain fell by the wayside. Instead, the British celebrated Guy Fawkes Night on November 5, using this celebration as a time to engage in some mischief.
Even after embracing Christianity, many people in Scotland, Ireland and northern England continued to practice many of the older traditions, including good-natured pranks. When people from these regions emigrated to North America in the 1800s, they brought these traditions with them.
Over the years, the vandalism and mischief element from Halloween celebrations was replaced with the long-forgotten tradition of trick-or-treating. Halloween became much more of a celebration for children. Those who still desired some hijinks adopted October 30 as their day to pull pranks, and that day is now widely known as Mischief Night.
In some areas, Mischief Night is referred to as "Cabbage Night." This stems from an old Scottish tradition of girls closely examining cabbages pulled out of their neighbor's patches to divine the qualities of their future husbands. Once the cabbage had revealed the future, some would throw it against a person's door and run away really fast. So in areas with large numbers of Scottish people, Mischief Night may be referred to as Cabbage Night.
Some people in English-speaking Quebec refer to October 30 as "Mat Night." Pranksters steal doormats and switch them with neighbors' mats. In the midwestern United States, some pranksters open farmers' gates and allow livestock to roam free. In such communities, October 30 may be referred to as "Gate Night."
Although Mischief Night largely consists of harmless fun, including toilet-papering of homes, "soaping" of car windows, smashing pumpkins, and chasing around friends with shaving cream, it does have the potential to get rowdy. Therefore, many towns institute a strict curfew for minors on October 30.
