curfew

curfew, a signal, as by tolling a bell, to warn the inhabitants of a town to extinguish their lights and fires or cover them up and retire to rest. This was a common practice throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.

The word, from the Old French cuevrefu (“cover fire”), originated in the fear of fire when most cities were built of timber. Its use is obvious, as the household fire was usually made in a hole in the middle of the floor, under an opening in the roof through which the smoke escaped. The custom is said to have been introduced into England by William the Conqueror, but more likely William simply enforced more strictly an existing regulation. The absolute prohibition of lights after the ringing of the curfew bell was abolished by Henry I in 1100. The practice of tolling a bell at a fixed hour in the evening is a survival of the ancient curfew. In 1848 the curfew was still rung at Hastings, Sussex, from Michaelmas (September 29) to the Feast of Annunciation (March 25), a custom that was also observed at Wrexham in northern Wales.

In 1918 the British board of trade, with a view to economy in the consumption of coal, introduced the “curfew order.” Similar orders have since been issued and enforced during times of war or civil unrest, as by the British military authorities in Ireland in the early 1920s, by the U.S. Army on the West Coast during the period of Japanese American internment in World War II, and by governments throughout the Middle East during the Arab Spring.