Mischief Night (October 30th)

Entry in progress—B.P.
   
Other Halloween-related nights include Cabbage Night, Chalk Night, Corn Night, Devil’s Night, Doorbell Night, Gate Night, Goosey Night, Moving Night and Soap Night.
       
 
Wikipedia: Mischief Night
Mischief Night is an informal holiday on which children and teenagers engage in pranks and vandalism. It is known by a variety of names (see below)
 
Historical background
The earliest reference to Mischief Night is from 1790 when a headmaster encouraged a school play which ended in “an Ode to Fun which praises children’s tricks on Mischief Night in most approving terms”. In the United Kingdom, these pranks were originally carried out as part of May Day celebrations, but shifted to later in the year, dates varying in different areas, some marking it on October 30, the night before Halloween, others on November 4, the night before Bonfire Night. According to one historian, “May Day and the Green Man had little resonance for children in grimy cities. They looked at the opposite end of the year and found the ideal time, the night before the gunpowder plot.” However, the shift only happened in the late nineteenth century and is described by the Opies as “one of the mysteries of the folklore calendar”. In Germany, Mischief Night is still celebrated on May 1.
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
mischief night  n. chiefly English regional (northern) an evening (originally 30 April, now 30 October or 4 November) on which children traditionally indulge in mischievous pranks.
1830   Sheffield Independent 22 May   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.
1865   W. S. Banks List Provinc. Words Wakefield 47   Mischief neet. Boys, thirty years ago, used to go about damaging property, believing the law allowed them, on this night. Happily the practice is over at Wakefield, and the time forgotten.
1972   ‘J. Ripley’ My Word you should have seen Us 119   It was ‘Mischief Night’—the evening before ‘Bonfire Night’—and an annual happening peculiar to the northern provinces.