Beggars Night

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beggars Night or more properly Beggars' Night, is a regional term for what is referred to in most parts of the United States as "Trick or Treat." Specifically, the term is broadly but not exclusively used throughout Ohio, in many parts of Iowa, and in some cities in Massachusetts.

In general, Beggars Night represents the "treat" portion of Trick or Treat, where children in costume make evening rounds of homes (and to a lesser extent to businesses during the day) and are given candy. This being closely tied to, but distinct from Halloween, when various forms of mischief may occur.

The night has usually been scheduled by municipal governments on a date prior to the actual Halloween date of October 31. In recent years however, the trend has been towards having it on Halloween, and the use of the term has been slightly diminished because of the loss of the distinction from the date of Halloween.

*My kid can't trick or treat on Halloween, which is a FRIDAY NIGHT, because some uppity paranoid cracker decided to lobby for Beggar's night on the 30th. Subsequently I am also missing the Beastie Boys concert in town.

So here, I believe, is the reasoning. Some kids did something dangerous and mean on Halloween and everyone panicked thinking we were headed to some sort of orgy of arson like Detroit and so they created Beggar's night so that the kids could be out and trick or treating on a night that isn't halloween, when the the bad people would be less likely to strike since they are obviously fuelled by Satan and can therefore only reach their full mischief potential on 10.31, and that way the cops can whip around on Halloween and detain/harass/imprison anyone that looks under 25 or wears a costume because if they were a legitimate trick or treater they would have been out the night before... on Beggar's night. Is that right?

Blogged with the Flock Browser