Devil's Night

From Free net encyclopedia

This article is about the Michigan cultural phenomenon. For the album by rap group D12, please see Devil's Night (album).

Devil's Night is one name associated with October 30, the night before Halloween, particularly in Detroit, Michigan.

Traditionally, teens and adults in the Detroit area engaged in a night of mischievous behavior, which usually consisted of harmless acts of vandalism (such as egging the homes of disliked neighbors) in retaliation for real or perceived wrongs committed against them during the year or in many cases merely as a practical joke. In the early 1980s the nature of these acts escalated to more serious misconduct and more severe acts of vandalism, including setting vacant houses on fire. As these activities increased and the tradition gained more notoriety, individuals, and very often Detroit area business owners, would take advantage of the tradition of Devil’s Night vandalism in order to collect on insurance policies by committing arson on their properties (i.e., setting fire to their own cars and/or businesses). These incidents would be blamed on Devil's Night hooligans and would unfortunately add to the notoriety of the night. Devil's Night is a long-standing Detroit tradition pre-dating World War II, with anecdotal incidents occurring as early as the 1930s.

Beginning in the 1970s the mischief became more destructive, in Detroit's inner-city neighborhoods, and extended into hundreds of acts of arson and vandalism. The destruction reached a peak in the mid- to late-1980s, with more than 800 fires set in 1984, and 500-800 fires in the three days and nights before Halloween in typical years.

In 1995, Detroit city officials organized and created Angel's Night on and around October 30. Each year, as many as 40,000 volunteers are gathered to patrol neighborhoods and prevent crime. Additionally youth curfews of as early as 6pm are instituted on the days preceding Halloween. This has resulted in a decline to 20 fires per day in the days around Halloween.

Devil's Night was chronicled in sociologist Ze'ev Chafets' 1991 book Devil's Night and Other True Tales of Detroit, and fictionalized in the 1994 movie The Crow. While the term is still well-known by Michigan residents, the news media in Detroit currently refer to the event as Angel's Night in an effort to boost the efforts of the volunteers.

The name Devil's Night or Mischief Night is used by various pranksters in the eastern U.S. and Canada, although the acts are far less destructive, criminal or violent. A survey done in the United States graphically shows the comparative popularity of various names for this night around the country.