Beggars' Night in Des Moines, Iowa, has been postponed until Halloween day

Des Moines, Iowa, will begin trick-or-treating on Halloween Day for the first time since 1938 as the city's Beggar Night was postponed due to rainy and stormy weather.

For the first time since 1938, children around Des Moines, Iowa, will go trick-or-treating on Halloween Day, but only because forecast rain and storms will ruin their traditional “Beggar's Night.”

According to the National Weather Service, children in Des Moines would be knocking on doors for candy and treats Wednesday night if a 100% chance of rain hadn't been forecast by evening. Strong to severe thunderstorms are also possible Wednesday afternoon and evening, with the greatest danger in areas of southern Iowa, the NWS forecast says.

Des Moines is expected to have a “minor risk” of severe weather on Wednesday, including damaging winds and the possibility of a tornado, according to the NWS.

The city, the capital of Iowa, announced the decision to move Beggar's Night to Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. “to provide a safe and festive trick-or-treating experience for the children and families of Des Moines.” it said in a press release Tuesday morning.

What is Beggar's Night?

Beggar's Night began about 80 years ago in Des Moines to curb the violence and vandalism that had become an annual problem in the city and its suburbs on Halloween night.

In addition to trick-or-treating the day before, Beggar Night requires children to tell a joke to receive candy. Kathryn Krieg, who served as the former recreation director of the Des Moines Playground Commission (later the Parks and Recreation Department) for 43 years, is credited as the creator of Beggars' Night.

When Kreig began her work on the commission in 1931, teenagers were arrested on Halloween for soaping windows, disabling streetcars, starting fires, and throwing bricks through windows. She and the commission knew things had to change when Des Moines police responded to a record 550 calls about vandalism on Halloween in 1938.

Kreig and the commission decided to begin begging night on October 30th. To get the community involved, they told the public that it was a one-night thing and that children were allowed to go door-to-door and say the phrase “trick” at dinner.” The council told people that Children would only receive candy if their phrase included a song, poem, stunt or musical number.

While many in the region followed the tradition, Bondurant and Windsor Heights, cities in the Des Moines metropolitan area, recently broke away from it and instead held trick-or-treating on the Saturday before Halloween.

Des Moines isn't the only city in Iowa changing Beggar Night

Des Moines isn't the only city in Iowa changing its trick-or-treating plans, as Pleasent Hill, a city in the Des Moines metropolitan area, has announced that Beggar's Night will also take place on Thursday.

“Pleasant Hill received an official notice of possible severe weather from the Polk County Emergency Management Agency, Iowa, at approximately 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29th,” reads a Facebook post shared Tuesday evening. “This formal notice gives the City of Pleasant Hill the opportunity to issue an emergency declaration to change the date for this year’s Beggars Night in the best interest of the community.”

The city initially did not plan to change the date because it was set by its city council and there was not enough time to hold a special meeting to change it.

Other cities following Des Moines and Pleasant Hill in moving Beggars' Night to Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. based on metro area weather forecasts include:

Ankeny
Altoona
Clive
Indianola
Johnston
Norwalk
Urbandale
Waukee
West Des Moines

Contributors: Mary Challender/The Des Moines Register

What is Beggar's Night?

Des Moines isn't the only city in Iowa changing Beggar Night

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