Beggars Night
Beggars Night, or Beggars' Night, is a regional term for the practice of going "Trick or Treat" in the period before Halloween night. Beggars Night emerged to address security concerns over young children involved in unsupervised Trick-or-Treating. Instead, younger children were encouraged to Trick-or-Treat on another night, before Halloween. The chosen date for Beggars Night varies and is typically dependent on the day Halloween falls each year. Beggars Night typically begins after school and often concludes between 6 and 8 pm.
The practice was fundamentally identical to that of Ragamuffin Day, a similar celebration in New York City from 1870 to the 1930s. Ragamuffin Day was traditionally associated with Thanksgiving before the interruptions of Thanksgiving dinner became seen as a nuisance, eventually moving into October.
Regional celebrations
The practice occurs in parts of Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Western New York, Southern Maine and Western Pennsylvania.Buffalo, New York
In the Buffalo area, Beggars Night falls on October 30 and is a of Halloween.Des Moines, Iowa
In Des Moines Beggars Night falls on October 30 and children ring doorbells, say "Trick or Treat", then tell riddles or jokes such as, "What did the priest say when the church caught on fire?" "Holy smoke!" or, “What did the pumpkin do when it got hurt?” “It put on a pumpkin patch!” Children could historically recite a poem or sing a song instead of the joke. The tradition began in 1938, after early Halloween celebrations were rife with violence and vandalism; Beggars Night was adopted in hopes of deterring the chaos and providing a safer environment.Des Moines and surrounding communities have continued to hold Beggars Nights on October 30 in lieu of traditional Halloween trick-or-treating; city law maintained that date for the next 86 years. In 2024, Beggars Night moved to coincide with Halloween for the first time since 1938, ostensibly due to severe weather; other communities had occasionally done the same in that span by local resolution, either to accommodate weather or to avoid holding it on a Sunday. Des Moines mayor Connie Boesen stated that, though the change would not be permanent, the city council would consider the results of the 2024 experiment and decide whether or not to make the move permanent.
In March of 2025, Des Moines City Council voted to officially move Trick-or-Treating to October 31st permanently for Des Moines. Surrounding communities followed also moving their Trick-or-Treating nights to the 31st or the last Saturday of October. This effectively ends the 80+ year old Beggars Night tradition in the Des Moines area.