Halloween doubles police calls in Christchurch

Halloween mayhem doubled the number of distress calls to Christchurch's police communication centre last night.

A police spokesman said this morning the centre took 776 calls last night.

"Certainly 776 calls on that shift (1pm to 11pm) is really busy," he said.

Last night Inspector Warren Kemp told The Press newspaper that staff had responded to about 700 calls by 10pm and more were coming in.

The usual number of calls on a Monday night shift (1pm to 11pm) was 300 to 400, Mr Kemp said.

"We've had anything from fireworks, to kids throwing eggs at cars, and kids walking around with baseball bats and crowbars with their costumes, which is not ideal."

The incidents happened all around Christchurch, he said.

Other centres around the country reported a fairly quiet night.

On Auckland's North Shore the streets were noticeably lacking in young Halloween participants and numerous church groups throughout New Zealand shunned the tradition in favour of less pagan alternatives.

Halloween began in the Celtic culture of Ireland when the Druids celebrated November 1 as their new year.

The celebrations began on the night of October 31 and lasted into the next day when the spirits of all those who had died in the year before would rise up and roam the earth.

It became a pagan holiday honouring the dead.

The tradition of wearing scary Halloween costumes followed the Druid custom of dressing in scary costumes to disguise themselves as spirits and evils so they could avoid being carried away if they met real spirits and real devils during the night.

Trick or treating was also believed to be an Irish tradition when people would visit neighbours to get food to last them through the day and to donate to their deities.

- NZPA