Beggar’s Night, Iowa’s Halloween for Children

Why don’t people believe this big cat when he tells you something? He is LION!

Here is a repost from a year ago. Call it laziness, but I like to attribute this to the neighborhood I live in, that has filled out in the last year with new neighbors from out of state. And since they are unaccustomed to the Iowa ways, I wanted to share a local tradition.

First things first, most communities in Iowa do not have trick or treaters walking around on Halloween. Instead each town and city will choose an evening around that date for the kids to go door to door for their candy. This is called Beggar’s Night. And since each town can set up their own time for this, it is not uncommon for a child to go out 2-3 nights in different areas of the Des Moines metro.

Next things next, Iowa trick-or-treaters are loosely expected to share a joke before getting candy. The hint for this is for the homeowner to ask the kids if they have any tricks. Nobody withholds the candy for lack of a joke, but the child and their parents are known to be transplants and not native central Iowans. We take pride in our local culture here and appreciate it when transplants learn the customs and share in them with us. It’s neighborly. It’s a reciprocity of “Iowa nice.” And I am a little saddened to see the practice fading away. Fewer and fewer kids each year have any jokes to share.

Here’s a story shamefully lifted from the Des Moines Register. If you click through to it, you will come to a page with video and sound that plays automatically.

Detroit has Hell Night.

Carbondale, Ill., used to have Fright Night.

When it comes to bizarre local Halloween traditions, however, few communities can match the Des Moines metro area and its 60-plus-year-old ritual of – well, let’s just call it Bad Joke Night.

In most places, the Halloween tradition goes like this: The kid says, “Trick-or-treat.” The homeowner gives him candy.

In Des Moines and surrounding suburbs, it’s more like this: The kid says, “Trick or treat.” The homeowner says “What’s your trick?” Then the kid tells a joke of the sort usually found on Bazooka gum wrappers.

Why didn’t the skeleton cross the road?
He didn’t have any guts.

Whether or not the homeowner is amused, the kid gets candy.