The end of October was usually a scary time in Wilmington as Halloween, with all its frolic, grinning jack-o-lanterns and mystic spirits, rolled around. But with the city living through an actual nightmare, the Spanish Influenza, the city police department banned public celebrations and general public revelry.
As Chief George Black announced the order, the News Journal remarked that the “Halloween Flu” had hit the city. Despite the order, bands of young people in costume appeared on Market Street but quickly found that the police were not joking when they ordered all false faces to come off and advised the clowns and other “fantastics” to go home. Confetti and ticklers were also suppressed as soon as they put in an appearance, and the patrolmen quickly put the quiet on any undue noise and carnival frolicking, killing off the Halloween spirit.
This left many young people wishing the “happy days” were back when Wilmington used to have big Halloween parades with bands and decorated fire apparatus and all the fixing, according to the newspaper. With the police ban in place, the reporter suggested that people might as well put those masquerade suits away in camphor and save them until next year.
Indeed, when Halloween rolled around in 1918, it was a far different sight from that of past years, when throngs of merrymakers and some mischief types failed the streets, gaily masked in every conceivable costume.
Halloween Greetings, a postcard from early in the 20th century (Source Historic New England, https://bit.ly/2FkAkgj)
Spanish Influenza on Delmarva
For more on the Spanish Influenza of 1918 in the region, see the Delmarva Spanish Flu Archive
Reflections on Delmarva's Past 