3 Things Every Pennsylvania Kid Did in October That Their Kids Never Will

October in Pennsylvania still has pumpkins, costumes and candy.

But the traditions around them have changed, and a few are gone entirely.

Here’s a look at what used to be part of October for Pennsylvania kids.

1. Mischief Night

Mischief Night is the name the Philadelphia region gave to Halloween Eve, Oct. 30.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that kids threw eggs at houses, cars and other objects, and also used paint, soap and toilet paper.

It wasn’t always harmless.

The early 1990s were the worst years, with vandals throwing rocks through windows in Levittown.

In 1991, about 150 reported fires were set on Mischief Night in Camden, New Jersey.

Through the rest of the 1990s, parents and officials took precautions.

Philadelphia and its suburbs used police patrols, curfews and other neighborhood initiatives to head off problems like the Camden fires.

If you grew up in the Philadelphia area, you may still call Oct. 30 Mischief Night.

Many kids today haven’t heard of the night.

2. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, started in Philadelphia.

Kids there collected for charity while trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

Clyde Allison was a Presbyterian minister, and his wife, Mary Emma, was a schoolteacher.

UNICEF USA says the Allisons began in 1948 by asking kids to collect old but repairable shoes along with candy.

By 1950, they’d switched to coins.

Trick-or-treaters sent $17 to UNICEF that first year to provide powdered milk for children around the world.

That was the start.

You may remember the little orange box kids carried from door to door to ask for donations along with the candy.

If you carried the box, you joined a campaign that UNICEF USA says has raised more than $195 million nationwide since 1950.

3. School Costume Parades

Halloween parades at Lower Merion elementary schools in Montgomery County ran for more than 50 years before the district canceled them in 2022, ABC30 reports.

All six elementary schools lost their parade.

If you attended a Lower Merion elementary school before 2022, a Halloween parade was part of your October.

The district said the parades ran outside and that it couldn't control or screen who came.

Fox News reported another reason: Many working parents and guardians couldn't attend a morning parade.

Parents were split.

Some said the district was crossing the line, while others called the change more inclusive.

Kids could still dress up on Halloween.

Fall-themed activities in the classroom replaced the parade.

In 2024, Deibler Elementary in the Pennridge School District in Bucks County ended a Halloween parade that dated back over 60 years, Patch reports.

The school emailed families of more than 400 students about the change.

It cited safety with hundreds of people on campus, student anxiety, and parking and traffic congestion.

The school planned a fall event without costumes instead.

Mischief Night Today

If you live along the Northeast corridor, you're in the area where many people use the name Mischief Night, the Inquirer says.

A University of Pennsylvania study found the name common in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware.

Public media station WHYY reported in 2011 that more than 100 fires broke out in Camden, New Jersey, in 1991.

Fewer people seemed to be taking part.

Kids had been playing fewer pranks in recent years, as of 2017.

Treats Instead of Tricks

Pittsburgh newspapers in the 1920s and 1930s reported Halloween vandals who soaped cars, knocked out streetlights and turned on fire hydrants, the Heinz History Center says.

Some reports described random property damage, hatchets through doors and pianos ending up in backyards.

Communities from Carrick to Swissvale offered kids Halloween parades and parties filled with prizes and treats.

The thinking was that handing treats to kids might cut down on the tricks.

There was less vandalism.

If you grew up near Carrick or Swissvale, you may have marched in a Halloween parade there.

After the post-war Baby Boom, Halloween became an event for children.

Kids headed out for candy on an evening of trick-or-treating that suited new suburban neighborhoods.

National UNICEF Day

By 1951, UNICEF was receiving coins, bills and checks from trick-or-treaters all around the country.

It caught on.

UNICEF USA says the campaign made its first TV appearance on Lassie in 1959.

President Lyndon Johnson declared Halloween National UNICEF Day in a 1967 proclamation.

If you turned on Bewitched in 1969, you could watch a full episode devoted to the campaign.

In the 1970s, stars like Sammy Davis Jr. and the Brady Bunch encouraged more than 3 million kids a year to take part nationwide.

Halloween Before Trick-or-Treating

Nutcrack Night was the western Pennsylvania name for a Halloween custom in the mid-1800s, the Heinz History Center says.

Celebrants pulled up kale or cabbage stalks and heated walnuts in the hearth fire while they played divination games.

If your family has deep roots in the Pittsburgh area, you may have heard the name Nutcrack Night.

Neighbors in New Jersey and New York called Oct. 30 Cabbage Night.

Masquerades were the main way Pittsburgh celebrated Halloween into the 1920s.

A 1914 photo shows costumed young adults at a Halloween party in Millvale.