There is an unfortunate tradition here in the UK tonight called Mischief Night. Unlike Halloween, which I have a instinctive love of, Mizzy Night, as it's called round here, is a lame excuse for nocturnal unpleasantness and anti-social antics. Many windows will be egged this evening and no doubt worse. Moonbase is on High Alert and our Moon Ranger fleet stand at the ready to disperse any yolk-fingered bands of urchins.
Now I have no recollection of Mischief Night whatsoever back in the Sixties and early Seventies when I was kid. I first came across the idea in the Brandon Lee movie The Crow when gangs rampaged the streets of LA. It was called Hell Night and was the night before Halloween.
Mischief Night is the night before Bonfire or Bommy Night here in the UK and as such can trace a heritage of mayhem right back to arch-anarchist himself, Mr. G. Fawkes. Despite this tradition I really dislike the idea of calenderised yobbery.
I would like to propose that we ditch Mischief Night in favour of a rekindling here in the UK of the European-Scandinavian festival of Walpurgis Night. Usually the last night in April it was traditionally a time of witchcraft and festivity. Oddly enough, Walpurgis or Walpurga was an English saint no less!
What do readers think of Mischief, Hell, Bonfire or Walpurgis Nights? Or like Scrooge, am I just an old stick in the mud?
In my native Ostrobothnia (i.e. Western Finland) we used to have - and they still do - big bonfires at Walburgis Night every April. All the fun was in throwing empty aerosol containers into the fire - Pop goes the L'Oréal!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Mischief Night. But the very thought of it is detestable!
ReplyDeleteBut I very much like your suggestion of rekindling Walpurgis Night. A super idea, Woodsy! If only that would be taken up.
As for Hell ... sadly that is where I live. (sobs heavily)
This is a new one on me as well, but my first thought was "Great, it's Halloween simplified for thugs and vandals who don't have the imagination for costumes or anything creative but don't want to miss out on any chance to break stuff." Don't they get that the rest of the year anyway?
ReplyDeleteAlso, :-( to Toad. I might have visited that place once or twice.
cchhhrrrreee....ccchhrrrreee..
ReplyDeleteSome places seem to have it and others don't (thankfully doesn't seem to happen here), but when it does, it usually is the night before Halloween not Bonfire night????
ReplyDeleteSounds like another US import, like "Trick or Treat". Never heard of it in East Anglia.
ReplyDelete