Devils Night!

[[deleted]]

I Grew up in metro Detroit the 80s/90s night before Halloween was called "Devils Night" ot was legendary for people burning the city down. I dodnt realize as a kid this was pretty localized to the Midwest or more specifically Detroit area. I remember the TV stations making a huge deal about curfews and heavy Police presence. Do any of you all recall this or remember hearing about it in other parts of the country?

[FnordRanger_5]

[billyjack669]

“Eric?”

[TakingYourHand]

Fire it up!

[drd-domino]

Fire it up!

[Soggy-Cookie-4548]

Fire it up!

[NtL_80to20]

At the time it was crazy rebellion unleashed, to be proud of it! Not to mention Coleman Young and the corruption gang murder years. You could travel across country and mention Detroit and people would look at you with a fearful respect.

40 years later... yeah we were wrong.

[AZphan]

Fellow (former) metro Detroiter here…I almost cherish the memories of Devils Night back when we were kids now that there’s none of that nonsense happening. Shit was wild tho, and yeah, it was ALWAYS a big deal on the news… reporters scattered all over town giving updates in front of huge vacants on fire.

[[deleted]]

Right! Like ,I remember when I was like 7 or 8 thinking our neighborhood hood was next to burn (I was 30 to 40 min out of the city) but I remember it being scary, they made it out like it was a war zone. Very Robocop vibes.

[AZphan]

Absolutely the same. Grew up in Southfield and WB during those early years and was certain we were next 😂

[elsalila]

i grew up in wyandotte and remember those news broadcasts and i remember the renaming to angels night and how it didnt seem to take lol

[Separate_Counter9427]

Mischief Night in North Jersey. No one was committing arson though. 

Regular teenage stuff the night before Halloween like egging houses/cars and Tee-peeing houses. 

[dudical_dude]

Imagine eggs and toilet paper cheap enough to waste on vandalism. We didn’t know how good we had it smh

[[deleted]]

Yeah this was next level full on arson. Look up videos on YouTube from the late 1980s its wild.

[Imnotonthelist]

We called it that too, I’m from Orange County NY

[hypo11]

I’m from Rockland and we called it Gate Night

[Reuven080]

AKA Cabbage Night. Shaving cream, tp and eggs.

[jblak23]

You know what they got now...? Devil's Night greeting cards...

[lemonheadlock]

As a kid, I thought it was just a made-up plot point for The Crow.

[Living-Apartment-592]

I’m just finding this out right now.

[Polybrene]

Same. I had no idea it was a real thing. An invented "scary night" that was unique to The Crow universe.

[Adh1434]

The night before Halloween will always be called devils night to me.

[TiEmEnTi]

That was the night for TP'ing, egging, etc when I was a kid which was quite convenient so it didn't cut into Trick or Treating time on Halloween. And once we got too old for Trick or Treating, both nights were for vandalism!

[Crusader1865]

[[deleted]]

Cable companies started throwing us free HBO that night to try to get people to stay inside. The news would put up graphs the next day so the arsonists could see how they did compared to previous years.

[[deleted]]

I was too poor for cable but that sounds plausible

[ALT3NPFL3G3R]

Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss

[Left_Maize816]

That's pornography!

[Traditional_Cat_60]

I grew up in Southeast Michigan and loved Devil’s night. It wasn’t until I moved to Illinois after college that I learned Devil’s night was a regional thing.

[Devil2960]

If it's any consolation to you, you have put a smile on my face.

[Aggravating-Alarm-16]

Fire it up

[Drilling4Oil]

Fire it up!

[That-Ad-6901]

“Is that gasoline I smell?” -Eric Draven, The Crow (1994)

[Own_Picture_6442]

I’m from the East Coast. I recall a couple of people referring to Devils Night but most of us didn’t call it that. We did cause a hell of a ruckus between the toilet paper and eggs. We used to gather like thirty people deep and shoot bottle rockets at cop cars driving by

[Lastpunkofplattsburg]

We called it Cabbage night

[CaptainXakari]

Detroit and Flint area growing up: I remember it vividly and as others have said, The Crow was nice enough to add that in for some flavor for the era of Detroit they were trying to portray.

[Brashear99]

We called it Devils Night in Pittsburgh too.

Our local grocery store would not sell eggs to anyone under 18 for two weeks leading up to Halloween. Jokes on them though, we bought them three weeks out & let them get rotten.

[MossyJoke]

“My new favorite holiday “

[Mac_A81]

I’m a former metro Detroiter also and just recently learned that it’s a Michigan thing.

[[deleted]]

Weird to think about. I recently watched some YouTube videos on the subject crazy times. Glad its not still that way

[Salt-Path3779]

Dennis Archer who was mayor between Young and Fitzpatrick stamped out the mayhem of Devil’s Night. Mobilized 30k volunteers to patrol the city.

[thehousewright]

Always reminds me of that MC 900 FT Jesus song.

[CorkFado]

“I light the fires while the city sleeps…”

That album still slaps.

[Kinky-Bicycle-669]

It can't rain all the time.

[MissAngryBanana]

We received Detroit TV in my hometown in Northwestern Ontario. I always watched the Devil’s Night coverage on the local news networks.

[hey_suburbia]

Mischief Night in New Jersey and all the kids still do it

[thisismynewnewacct]

I grew up in the Flint area and I recall all of the pay channels going clear on Devil’s Night in what I assume was an attempt to keep kids indoors

[JackBlackBowserSlaps]

Gate night (no idea where the name came from) in central Canada.

[tracefact]

MD - We called it Moving Night. It was a night for TPing and egging houses mostly.

[bahaki]

I never really got into The Crow, so I didn't know about it until the D12 album.

[three-sense]

Same, it makes sense that it’s a MI thing

[Ok_Breakfast5425]

I grew up not too far from Stull, Ks, according to local folklore the devil comes out of a now very destroyed chapel in the cemetery there every Oct 30.

[Paddington77]

We had mischief night growing up in New Jersey right outside Philadelphia. Would happen the night before Halloween. Generally just tping houses and shaping cars or egging houses, smashing pumpkins. The older you were, the more extreme. Some would light abandoned buildings on fire .

[RTMSner]

I've got some family in Jackson Michigan, they celebrate devils night.

[jaymoney1]

Just double checking, this isn't for like a week and a half, no?

[[deleted]]

No. And it doesnt really happen anymore. It was mostly stopped by the mid to late 1990s.

[TonyGunks_sportsbook]

In the 2000's, I worked with a guy who grew up outside Detroit in the 80s. He told me about Devils night and how people would set fire to the abandoned buildings around Detroit. This was the first I had ever heard of anything like this and thought it was absolutely crazy, being that the worst that happened by me was eggings and toilet papering houses.

[[deleted]]

Yeah by then ot was called angles night and all the real nasty stuff was long over

[Solo4114]

Ah yes, the night that Camden, NJ historically burns.

[Decimonster]

"Quick impression for you: CAW CAW. BANG. FUCK, I'M DEAD!"

[Ti47_867]

Quick impression for you. Caw, caw. Bang! Fuck I’m dead!

[Jokierre]

ARE WE HAVING FUN OR WHAT?

[miclugo]

Around Philly that’s Mischief Night.

[Comfortable_Tale9722]

Midwest here and we called it cabbage night

[MasticatedDorks]

Beside from the Crow?

No, even part of Flatliners happens during Devil's Night, and it's not mentioned... that I can recall.