Beggar's Night
In my last post I mentioned that as children we went out to "trick or treat" on the night before Halloween, as well as on Halloween. I wondered if this was a tradition peculiar to my family. This morning as we were waiting for a telephone conference meeting to begin we chatted for a few minutes about non-business things. We had people from Texas, Maryland, California, and Ohio on the line. Someone asked if they still practiced "Beggar's Night" in Ohio with the children going out on October 30. The guy from Ohio said that they did. He was surprised to find out that this is not a tradition practiced throughout the nation. As far as the others on the line knew it was something peculiar to Ohio. I've since looked a little on the Internet and found that the do have a "Beggar's Night" in parts of Iowa and in Wisconsin, but it is a big thing in Ohio.
It is good to have verification that I did not falsely remember "Beggar's Night," as practiced over fifty years ago. Looks like they are still doing it - at least in Ohio and a few other places. Anyone know of any other places in the country where they go house to house trick-or-treating on October 30?
In my last post I mentioned that as children we went out to "trick or treat" on the night before Halloween, as well as on Halloween. I wondered if this was a tradition peculiar to my family. This morning as we were waiting for a telephone conference meeting to begin we chatted for a few minutes about non-business things. We had people from Texas, Maryland, California, and Ohio on the line. Someone asked if they still practiced "Beggar's Night" in Ohio with the children going out on October 30. The guy from Ohio said that they did. He was surprised to find out that this is not a tradition practiced throughout the nation. As far as the others on the line knew it was something peculiar to Ohio. I've since looked a little on the Internet and found that the do have a "Beggar's Night" in parts of Iowa and in Wisconsin, but it is a big thing in Ohio.
It is good to have verification that I did not falsely remember "Beggar's Night," as practiced over fifty years ago. Looks like they are still doing it - at least in Ohio and a few other places. Anyone know of any other places in the country where they go house to house trick-or-treating on October 30?
posted by Nectar | 3:01 PM
1 Comments:
I haven't heard of other places with Oct. 30 trick-or-treating, but I do know about a different regional Halloween tradition. In St. Louis, it's tradition for the person giving out candy to ask the trick-or-treaters to tell a joke first. I think some people gauge how much candy to give out based on how good the joke is. Even if the kids come to your house in a group, each one needs to tell a joke.
Most kids have one joke prepared, which they tell at every house. A few days before Halloween, people will start telling jokes on the radio or putting them in the newspaper, so that everyone can come up with a joke to tell. Some of the kids make up their own jokes, with varying results. My old roommate said she thought Halloween was very tiring, since you had to laugh at many unfunny jokes.
For those who don't know of the tradition and have just moved into town from another state, it can be rather confusing when trick-or-treaters knock on their doors and immediately launch into a joke.
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