Neewollah? What is that? Well, for starters, it’s a family-friendly, church-friendly take on Halloween with carnival games, bounce houses and classic cars decked out for trunk-or-treating. It’s happening Oct. 31from 5:00-7:30 p.m. at The Salvation Army’s offices.
But it’s more than that. Neewollah is actually a century-old tradition that’s tied back to a time when kids’ Halloween antics included more than just egging a house or toilet papering a tree.
Neewollah has its roots in the small community of Independence, Kansas, whose residents started the celebration in 1919 to provide kids with an alternative to the standard “pranks” they pulled on Halloween.
We’re not sure what kind of pranks they were pulling in Kansas back then—but here in the Truckee Meadows the children were very, very inventive.
Take for example, when the Reno Evening Gazette reported in 1915 on the pranks local kids had pulled in preceding decades, like the year when “the Sierra Street populace was awakened by the loud bellowings of a bovine, coming from nobody seemed to know where” until “finally, the discommoded animal was located perched perilously near the edge of the roof on Tom Hymers’” stables, and it took hours to rig a block and tackle to get the animal down. Then there was the time that “half the citizens of the town awakened to find their front and back gates missing,” and it was several weeks before “news of the arrival of two freight cars loaded with gates at an obscure eastern city” reached Reno. Or imagine the scene following the Halloween when University of Nevada “Prof. John Edwards Bray’s white horse” was painted in the middle of the night, “making it the only red, white and blue animal in existence.”
This year, The Salvation Army will be celebrating Neewollah on October 31, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m.
There will be costumes, classic cars from the Revelation Christian Car Club with trunks stuffed full of candy, carnival games and live music by Christian rapper Cody Treat.
Reno Fire Department Fire Investigator Sean O’Brien and his arson dog, Boston, will be there for a 5:30 p.m. demonstration; and longtime community partner Kiwanis Bike Club will host a craft booth as well as bicycle repair demonstrations.
The event will be held at 1931 Sutro Street, Reno, Nevada 89512.
Call 775-688-4555 for details.
