In many neighborhoods, the night before Halloween is the night when pranksters run around wreaking all kinds of mischief–toilet-papering houses, spraying windows with shaving cream, ringing doorbells and then running away. A Connecticut woman remembers calling that night Goosey Night, and is surprised when friends call it Mischief Night. In fact, that prankfest goes by lots of other names, including Corn Night, Picket Night, and Devil Night. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Mischief Night”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Lori from Connecticut.
Hiya, Lori. What’s going on?
Hi. I’m so excited to be talking to you. I’ve been waiting for October, holding on to this question since I discovered your program last spring.
Okay. Wow.
So you want to ask about Columbus Day or what?
Actually, about Halloween.
Okay.
Well, it’s actually the night before Halloween. You know, when kids usually run through the neighborhood, TPing trees and putting shaving cream on your windows, tipping over trash cans? Never done any of that. No, no, of course not. Well, the kids in my neighborhood always called it Goosey Night. And it wasn’t until I went off to college that I knew people called it Mischief Night. So I’m just sort of wondering if that’s a regional thing for where I grew up. Goosey Night. Goosey Night. I know it sounds very odd now that I think about it.
And what did you do on Goosey Night? I mean, what was… What did the other kids do on Goosey? Did they go around and goose each other?
No, there’s no connection to goose or geese that I remember. You know, it was just you’d run around sort of, you know, creating mischief, you know, throwing toilet paper, you know, ringing doorbells and running away, that sort of thing.
Yeah.
Well, you’re right. I mean, this is a puzzle. It’s a really, really localized term, isn’t it, Grant?
Yeah, it is. Although there’s one little exception I’ll talk about in just a minute.
Okay.
Well, I’m looking at the Dictionary of American Regional English, which mentions Passaic County and portions of Bergen, Morris, and Essex County, and not much more than that, not much more than central northern New Jersey.
Yep, Bergen County. That’s where I grew up.
Aha.
So the mystery here is why is it called Goosey Night? And I don’t know that anybody knows, but I will tell you that there have been so many different names for this kind of mischief. I mean, this kind of mischief is not limited to New Jersey. I’ve seen Cabbage Night is another one that I’ve seen where people would leave skunk cabbages on people’s doorsteps. And those are really stinky if you cut them open.
What else is there, Grant?
Mischief Night.
Well, Devil Night or Devil’s Night.
In Detroit, yeah. I knew some guy who used to put a thumbtack on his doorbell covered with tape on Devil’s Night.
Yeah, because these kids would always be ringing in the doorbell.
Well, here’s another name for it. And this is from Yorkshire in the United Kingdom or in England and known as Miggy Night, M-I-G-G-Y, Miggy. But also, according to a book by Tom Holman called A Yorkshire Miscellany, they also called it Goosey Night in Yorkshire.
Ooh.
So there’s a little bit of a clue there. It’s the only other use of Goosey Night that I can find outside of anything attributed to New Jersey.
I’ll be darned.
Yeah.
Do you think those arose independently, or do you think there’s a connection?
There’s got to be a connection there, and I don’t know what it would be. What’s really interesting is this term just seems to pop up in the 70s, right?
Oh, yeah. We don’t find a lot of use of it before then.
So you’re pretty young.
Yes, I was an infant when I used this term.
Oh, I see. You were talking at a very early age, right?
No, it’s probably older than that, but it’s hard to find it in the printed record.
Well, it’s such an odd night because I’m looking again online and there’s Beggars’ Night, Corn Night, Mystery Night, Picket Night, Tic Tac Night. And I guess people need names for mischief, huh?
Yeah, because it’s part of the holiday, right? Halloween itself has become a little sterile, and so you want something. If you can’t find real spooks, be the spook yourself, right?
Well, Lori, thanks for this. Maybe we’ll hear from other people who participate in Goosey Nights.
Oh, thank you.
Okay, sure thing.
Super duper. Thanks. Bye-bye.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Well, what did you call that kind of mischief in your part of the country? Call us or call us about something else, 1-877-929-9673, or send an email. That address is words@waywordradio.org.
