Tomorrow (Oct 31) is Beggar's Night here in Grinnell when spooks and ghouls will go running around town telling jokes and collecting candy in celebration of Halloween.
Yes, I said that right, they tell jokes in order to earn their candy. The Des Moines Register has ran it's yearly article explaining how Iowa's tradition of Beggar's Night jokes got started 60 years ago.The credit for providing Des Moines children with the perfect outlet for their most groan-inducing jokes largely goes to one woman, Kathryn Krieg, director of recreation for the Des Moines Playground Commission (later the Parks and Recreation Department) for 43 years.
Over the years since the tradition has spread to most of Iowa's communities with only slight changes. Now a days, homeowners that want to participate turn on their porch light. Krieg retired in 1974 and died in 1999 at the age of 94, and while the tradition she set in motion doesn't entirely do away with the vandalism, as this morning's news from Indianola shows, it has certainly kept it low. It's also a great way to get caught up on all the new jokes.
When Krieg assumed her post in 1931, kids on Beggars' Night were more likely to clamor "Soaps or Eats" than "Trick or Treat." Every year the newspaper ran a long list on Nov. 1 of youths arrested the previous evening for crimes ranging from soaping windows and sidelining streetcars to setting fires and throwing bricks through windows.
The flash point came on Halloween in 1938 when Des Moines police answered a record 550 calls concerning vandalism. Krieg, along with the Community Chest' group work council, began a campaign to encourage less violent forms of Halloween fun.
They set aside Oct. 30 as Beggars' Night and got the word out to the public that on that night - and only that night - children would be allowed to go from door to door and say the phrase "tricks for eats." The council urged that "eats should be given only if such a 'trick' as a song, a poem, a stunt or a musical number, either solo or in group participation, is presented."
The next year, the group work council again promoted the Beggars' Night concept, this time as a way to aid the war effort. An article published in The Des Moines Register on Oct. 29, 1942, carried the headline "Kids! -Don't Help the Axis on Halloween" and included this poem encouraging proper behavior:
"Soap and ticktacks are taboo,
Ringing doorbells? Not for you.
Thoughts of pranks, you must detour,
Lest you bet a saboteur."
The Beggars' Night program was so successful that by the mid-1940's, the number of Halloween police calls in Des Moines had been cut by more than half.
Want more? RSS FEED | TWITTER FEED | FACEBOOK | STORE | HOME
30 October 2009
Beggar's Night
This space is designed for thoughtful commentary on politics and media (and whatever else comes to mind). The Pajama Pundit welcomes people from all political stripes to voice opinions freely and without fear of mean-spirited attacks. He does however expect intelligent discussion -- and some understanding of proper grammar usage.
For a more detailed look at commenting, please review our Comment Policy.
Please refrain from personal attacks on authors or other users. Back up your argument with documentation (links to elsewhere on the web). This is a big sandbox -- so please play nicely with one another.
NOTE: For all of the HTML nerds out there (like me), anchor, strong (bold), em (italic) and blockquote tags work within the comment form.
The Pajama Pundit - Founder/Editor
