Beggars Night

Uncommon card · No. 147853

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.

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