Author Topic: Halloween, Cabbage Night, etc.  (Read 22949 times)

Offline Editor

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Halloween, Cabbage Night, etc.
« on: October 31, 2013, 02:39:56 PM »
It's a Jersey thing: N.J. may be the only state to call tonight 'mischief night'
By Alex Napoliello/NJ.com   
October 30, 2013 at 3:56 PM


The map from Joshua Katz, NC State University, based on research by Bert Vaux. New Jersey is part of a small sample that calls tonight "mischief night." The red does not have a term for the night before Halloween. (Joshua Katz, North Carolina State University)

New Jerseyans are part of a small percentage of Americans that call the night before Halloween “mischief night,” a study shows.

Joshua Katz, a PhD student in statistics at North Carolina State University, created a map based on a Harvard Dialect Survey about how Americans speak.

While the study, led by Prof. Bert Vaux, found that most Americans don’t have a special name for tonight, most people in New Jersey call it “Mischief Night.” Michigan residents, in fact,  are the only other ones to have a name for Halloween eve, “Devils Night.”

"Mischief Night" is just that: A night, typically, young unsupervised juveniles go around engaging in mischievous behavior such as throwing eggs at homes and wrapping trees in toilet paper. Some New Jersey towns enforce a zero tolerance policy to cut down on this type of behavior.

Of the 10,640 respondents nationwide, 70.3 percent did not have a special name for tonight. Ten percent referred to it as “Mischief Night,” while another 11 percent labeled it “Devils Night.”

Other names, which all earn less than five percent, include “Gate Night,” “Trick Night,” “Cabbage Night” and “Goosey Night.”

What do you call it? Answer our poll, and be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

© 2013 NJ.com. All rights reserved.



Offline itsmetoo

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Re: Halloween, Cabbage Night, etc.
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2013, 04:53:10 PM »
 Cabbage Night

Offline hhscomets_alum

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Re: Halloween, Cabbage Night, etc.
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2013, 12:14:54 AM »
Cabbage night.

Offline itsmetoo

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Re: Halloween, Cabbage Night, etc.
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2013, 01:44:22 PM »
I wonder where in New Jersey this poll was taken.  Growing up in Hackensack, I have only ever called it Cabbage Night.

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Halloween, Cabbage Night, etc.
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2019, 08:48:52 PM »
Maywood's anti-Cabbage Night ordinance (Nixle notice)


Click to enlarge.



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Offline johnny g

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Re: Halloween, Cabbage Night, etc.
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2019, 07:12:22 AM »
In the late 70's and early 80's me and my friends from our end of town would hang out under Rt 80 and throw eggs at the 165 buses going by. Then we'd make our way up to Indian Lake in Little Ferry and we'd war with the LF kids...the trees would be filled with toilet paper, broken eggs everywhere...a real juvenile disaster! At some point Valley Fair stopped selling eggs to kids on Cabbage night! haha
Good times  8)