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The expression mischief night designates an evening on which people, especially children and teenagers, traditionally indulge in mischievous pranks.
—Cf. also:
– origin of the verb ‘to toilet-paper’;
– origin of the Hallowe’en phrase ‘trick or treat’.
The texts containing the earliest occurrences of mischief night that I have found indicate that, originally, this expression:
– designated the evening of 30th April (May Eve), because May Day (1st May) was traditionally an occasion for springtime festivities (however, mischief night designates the eve of All Fools’ Day in quotation 4, below);
– was used in Yorkshire (a county of north-eastern England, on the North Sea) and in Lancashire (a county of north-western England, on the Irish Sea).
The earliest occurrences of the expression mischief night that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From Convictions before the Huddersfield Magistrates, published in The Leeds Mercury (Leeds, Yorkshire, England) of Saturday 15th May 1830 [page 3, column 2]—whiteing is a variant of whiting:
On Saturday last, William Haigh was committed to the House of Correction for two months, for covering the windows of Mr. Eli Dyson, of Linthwaite, with whiteing, on May-day eve, vulgarly called the mischief night.
2-: From an account of a court case, published in The Sheffield Independent, and Yorkshire and Derbyshire Advertiser (Sheffield, Yorkshire, England) of Saturday 22nd May 1830 [page 3, columns 4 & 5]:
Caution.—May Eve, or Mischief Night.—Wm. Marsh, a lad apparently about fifteen years of age, charged Mr. George Lee, of Attercliffe, with assaulting him. The complainant stated that on the night of the 20th of May, while he was doing nowt and saying nowt, Mr. Lee beat him very severely with a horsewhip. The master of the complainant deposed that since the night on which the occurrence took place, he had been unable to follow his usual work, and “from being a fine round-faced boy, had fallen off surprisingly.” Mr. Lee being put on his defence very candidly admitted that at the time named “he dressed him o’er wi’ a whip, but he did it rather middlingly than too much,” and had moreover abundant reasons for taking the law into his own hands, as his witnesses could testify. A respectable woman was then brought forward by Mr. Lee, who gave her testimony in nearly the following words. “This ere boy, and about twenty more such like comes, and they pinches and tosses, and cuses and swears in all directions, and then they pulls down the fences and doors, scandalous to be seen; arter that they makes it up among themsens to pull t’ roof off ’t garden-house; then they gets agate among us cabbages, and I thought it right to sort up my boys, but just as I wer’ calling them, George Lee comes up and collars this lad, who wer’ ring-leader,—wi’ that he gives him a dressing wi’ a whip.” Mr. Lee, in confirmation of this statement, said that the last witness was one of his tenants, and had with many others suffered serious injuries from the proceedings of a gang of lawless boys, who had taken it into their heads that on particular occasions, such as May een, or mischief night as it was termed, they might commit the most serious depredations with impunity. The magistrate admitted that Mr. Lee had exercised a rigour beyond the law, but refused the complainant any redress, under the particular circumstances attending the assault.
3-: From an account of a court case, published in The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent (Sheffield, Yorkshire, England) of Saturday 25th July 1840 [page 3, column 2]:
WILLIAM HARGOTT was charged with cutting and stabbing Samuel Cutler, at Sheffield, on the 30th April. […] Cutler […] stated […]: It was about nine o’clock in the evening. It was mischief night. I do not know the meaning of mischief night, except that people go about playing tricks.
4-: From The pictorial history of the County of Lancaster: With one hundred and seventy illustrations and maps (London: George Routledge, 1844), by the British author and journalist Cyrus Redding (1785-1870) [page 264]:
The eve of All Fool’s [sic] day is not without its appropriate rites, though the custom we are about to mention is fast dying away. The amusements are, tying fast the latch of the door, and blowing the fumes of burning asafœtida through the keyhole, smearing the handle with tar, stopping the chimneys with straw, etc. This time is, with good reason, called “mischief night.”
5-: From an account of a court case in Bolton, Lancashire, published in The Manchester Guardian (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Wednesday 15th May 1844 [page 7, column 1]:
Wilful Damage.—At the Old Sessions Room, on Monday last, Joseph Thornley and Thomas Lambert, of Horwich, were charged with removing a garden gate, the property of Mr. Tate, about one o’clock on Sunday morning. They were watched by two policemen, who followed them up to Horwich Church, where they found about 40 gates which had been stolen by the prisoners and other young men. They were required to find two sureties each for their good behaviour. On being asked what their motive was for such conduct, they said it was “mischief night,” and they did not know they were doing wrong.
6-: From A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century (London: John Russell Smith, 1846), by the British antiquarian James Orchard Halliwell (1820-1889) [Vol. 1, page 555]:
MISCHIEF-NIGHT. May-eve. Yorksh.
7-: From Early Days (London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., 1849), the autobiography of the Lancashire author and radical reformer Samuel Bamford (1788-1872) [Chapter 14. Pastimes and Observances, pages 144 & 145]:
The night of the first of May was “Mischief-neet,” when, as “there is a time for all things,” any one having a grudge against a neighbour was at liberty to indulge it, provided he kept his own counsel. On these occasions it was lawful to throw a neighbour’s gate off the angles, to pull up his fence, to trample his garden, to upset a cart that might be found at hand, to set cattle astray, or to perform any other freak, whether in the street, house-yard, or fields, which might suggest itself or be suggested. The general observation in the morning would be, “Oh, it’s nobbut th’ mischief-neet.” If a young fellow wished to cast a slur on a lass, he would hang a rag containing salt at her parents’ door, or he would cast some of the same material on her door step, as indicative of gross inclinations. If he remained unknown he escaped punishment, but if he were detected, or his secret became divulged, he generally got thrashed, as he deserved, by a brother, or some favoured swain, or he might get his face channelled by the fair one’s nails the next time she met him, or a mop slapped against his cheek, or a vessel of odourous liquid powered on his clothes as he passed the desecrated threshold; all or any of which retaliations would earn for him but small sympathy with his neighbours,—the men chuckling, or laughing, and saying nothing; and the women all agreeing, “Aye, it sarves him quite reet, th’ wastril.” A gorse bush indicated a woman notoriously immodest; and a holly bush, one loved in secret; a tup’s horn intimated that man or woman was faithless to marriage vows; a branch of sapling, truth in love; and a sprig of birch, a pretty girl. If a house floor wanted cleaning, a mop would be left for that purpose; and if a dame was notorious for her neglect of needle-work, a ragged garment of some sort would be hung at her door. The morning after “mischief-neet” was generally prolific of gossip and some laughter, as it generally became known by breakfast-time what “lumber” (mischief) farmer So-and-so had had done, and what this young girl, or that young widower, found at their doors when they opened them.
8-: From the autobiography of the Sheffield author Samuel Roberts (1763-1848), in Autobiography and select remains of the late Samuel Roberts (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1849) [page 19]:
May-eve was called Mischief Night. It was a kind of Saturnalia, every one understanding that he might, without fear of punishment, play what mischievous pranks he chose. There were, however, certain limits understood, which were rarely passed. The jokes were generally very harmless; I believe stealing was never practised. When the rogues could get to the top of the chimney of a low house, they, having previously either fastened the door, or reared a tall log of wood against it, would, putting a flat stone on the top, drop a dead cat, or a quantity of water, down it. The inmates, on going to the door, either found it fast, or were, on opening it, saluted by the falling log. The way in which many doors were then fastened and opened was by a wooden latch, with a thong of leather fastened to it put through a hole in the door. On going to bed the inmates pulled the string inside, and all was secure. The cutting of these sneck-bands, as they were called, was a common piece of mischief. The removal and concealment of doors and window-shutters was frequent: indeed every one, on rising on May-day morning, expected to find that some trick or other had been played against them.
This custom, formerly very prevalent throughout the county, has been discontinued many years.
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