Night before Halloween

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:59 PM -0500 10/31/02, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>In Detroit (city) ca. 1960, "Devil's Night" (I pictured it as "Devils'
>Night" then) was a children's institution, a time for pranks or tricks, an
>extension of Halloween (Oct. 31 evening was expended in foraging for
>treats, so the tricks had to have a different night). Some of the tricks of
>course were childishly cruel or dangerous...

Funny you should mention the two analyses.  I first entered it as
"Devils' Night" in my reply to the query this morning, thinking that
each of the perpetrators (not being a Detroiter, I hadn't known about
the more innocent origins of the night of mayhem and arson later
widely reported) was a devil, and then deciding that the whole night
belonged to the Devil.

larry