Halloween Violence And Vandalism Were Once So Common That Authorities Even Considered Banning The Holiday
When kiddos today think of Halloween, many picture elaborate costumes purchased from Spirit Halloween or Party City and bowls topped off candy waiting to be thrown in a jack-o-lantern bucket.
But, the spooky holiday was not always known for such innocent activities. In fact, “tricks,” including violence and vandalism, were once much more common than “treats”– and the mayhem all stemmed back to the 1800s.
At that time, the United States welcomed immigrants from all over Europe. However, migrants from Ireland and Scotland brought along their own Halloween tradition of pulling pranks– quickly making trickery a mainstream Halloween pastime.
“In Ireland, boys would carve spooky faces in turnips to scare unwary travelers, and they would tie strings to cabbages and pull them through fields to scare people,” revealed Lisa Morton, the author of Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween.
Still, these pranks only served as inspiration for what would happen in rural regions during the later 1800s.
Putting livestock and farmers’ wagons on barn roofs, tipping over outhouses, and ripping up vegetable gardens quickly became standard Halloween shenanigans.
And at first, the pranking was more of an annoyance than a true danger. However, this quickly changed after automobiles became commonplace and the trickery moved from rural regions into metropolitan areas.
At that point, kids would light fires, trip pedestrians, and break glass. There were also reports of young boys scampering through city streets and pelting people with bags of flour or ashes.
So, by 1902, many adults were fed up with the growing amount of danger and destruction each fall season. One newspaper, the Cook County Herald, even encouraged Illinois residents to stand their ground in an article that year.
Yuval Helfman – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
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“Most everybody enjoys a joke or fun to a proper degree on suitable occasions, but when property is damaged or destroyed, it is time to call a halt,” the paper began.
“We would advise the public to load their muskets or cannon with rock, salt, or bird shot, and when trespassers invade your premises at unseemly hours upon mischief bent, pepper them good and proper so they will be effectually cured and have no further taste for such tricks.”
Still, though, Halloween violence and looting only escalated during the Great Depression. And amidst so much other turmoil, the public just could not stand seeing any more destruction. So, authorities even considered banning the frightening holiday.
However, according to Morton, that strategy would have never worked– and officials were savvy enough to think up another, more effective plan.
Instead of taking away the holiday, civic authorities, community organizations, and families banded together to amplify Halloween celebrations– just in their own controlled and PG way.
Rather than leaving kids to run amock the night of October 31, carnivals, parties, and costume parades were launched as a way to keep children occupied.
And since the Great Depression was not a time of abundant wealth, the effort was only possible through community-wide collaboration.
For example, families would pool together resources and create house-to-house parties.
“The first house might give out costumes such as a white sheet to be ghosts or soot to smudge on kids’ faces. The next house might give out treats, and the next might have a basement set up as a tiny haunt,” Morton explained.
These festivities quickly told hold among youth and sparked the tradition of dressing up for Halloween and going door-to-door in search of candy.
Then, by World War II, many children pledged to support troops abroad by abstaining from vandalism, violence, and other fooleries on the holiday– which was one more big step toward solidifying the family-friendly Halloween traditions we know and love today.
Don’t get me wrong, though. This is not to say that no tricks or pranks were ever pulled for Halloween thereafter.
Some children who wanted to cash in on both the “tricks” and “treats” opted to just move their shenanigans to Halloween Eve or October 30. But still, this newer tradition known as Mischief Night is much tamer than the pranks of the past.
Nowadays, teens might throw toilet paper into trees, egg houses, or spray shaving cream in yards.
And even though you might be annoyed to find your house “teepeed” or egged the next morning, at least most incidences of true danger have remained gone for good.
More About:Human Interest
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