Today is Halloween. Why was Yesterday “Beggar’s Night?”


spookydsm

New to Central Iowa?  Confused as to why Des Moines and a number of other cities have “Beggar’s Night?”  You’re not alone.  I grew up with the tradition, so I was in my teens before I realized that this wasn’t normal.  I mean, I had trick-or-treated on Halloween proper with my grandparents in smaller Iowa towns, but I believed big cities all had a “Beggar’s Night.”  Nope.

Instead, it was one woman’s pretty genius idea to stop hoodlums (it was 1938, it was a word) from destroying property.  So, here is Channel 13’s story from last Halloween.  (I had a killer blog about it two years ago, but the Internet ate it.)

Happy Halloween! -Kate

http://whotv.com/2015/10/30/digging-into-the-history-of-beggars-night/

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