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The First Beggars’ Night in Des Moines, Iowa since 1938 took place
Children in Des Moines, Iowa will be able to trick-or-treat on Halloween for the first time since 1938, but only because their usual “Beggars’ Night” was cancelled due to predicted bad weather.
Des Moines children would have started door-to-door trick-or-treating Wednesday night if not for the predicted 100% chance of rain in the evening, per the National Weather Service. The NWS forecast indicated that there is a chance of strong to severe thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon and evening, mainly in southern Iowa.
The National Weather Service forecasts Des Moines to experience a “marginal risk” of severe weather on Wednesday, with potential tornadoes and damaging winds.
The Iowa capital city declared the change to move Beggars’ Night to Thursday from 6-8 p.m. “to provide a safe and festive trick-or-treating experience for Des Moines children and families,” a news release sent Tuesday morning said.
What does Beggars’ Night refer to?
80 years ago, Beggars’ Night was introduced in Des Moines to address the recurring problem of violence and vandalism on Halloween night in the city and surrounding areas.
Along with trick-or-treating ahead of Halloween, kids must share a joke during Beggars’ Night to get candy. Kathryn Krieg, the former director of recreation for the Des Moines Playground Commission (later the Parks and Recreation Department) for 43 years, is recognized as the originator of Beggars’ Night.
When Kreig started working for the commission in 1931, young people were getting arrested on Halloween for soaping windows, blocking streetcars, starting fires, and breaking windows with bricks. In 1938, she and the commission realized that changes were necessary when Des Moines police received 550 calls about Halloween vandalism.
Kreig and the committee agreed to start Beggars’ Night on October 30th. In order to engage the community, they informed the public that it was a one-night event where children could go door to door saying “trick for eats.” The council informed individuals that kids would only get candy if their statement included a song, a poem, a trick, or a musical performance.
Despite the tradition being widely upheld in the region, Bondurant and Windsor Heights, both cities within the Des Moines metropolitan area, recently diverged by scheduling trick-or-treating on the Saturday preceding Halloween.
Other Iowa cities, not just Des Moines, are also adjusting Beggars’ Night traditions.
Pleasant Hill, a city in the Des Moines metropolitan area, also decided to hold its Beggars’ Night on Thursday, following suit with Des Moines in changing its trick-or-treating plans.
“Pleasant Hill received an official notice from Polk County Emergency Management Agency, Iowa at approximately 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29 of potential severe weather,” a Facebook post shared Tuesday evening said. “This formal notice provides the City of Pleasant Hill the ability to issue an Emergency Proclamation to change the date for this year’s Beggars Night in the best interest of the community.”
The city had no intention of changing the date at first as it was established by the city council and it wasn’t feasible to schedule a special meeting for the change.
Additional cities also changing Beggars’ Night to Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. like Des Moines and Pleasant Hill due to weather predictions in the metro region are:
- Ankeny
- Altoona
- Clive
- Indianola
- Johnston
- Norwalk
- Urbandale
- Waukee
- West Des Moines
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