Door-knocking prank

A door-knocking prank, colloquially known variously as knock, knock, ginger, ding dong ditch, Chappy, and knock a door run amongst other names, is a prank or game that dates back to the traditional Cornish holiday of Nickanan Night where it was originally called Nicky Nicky nine doors in the 19th-century or possibly earlier. The game is played by children in a lot of cultures. It involves knocking on the front door (or ringing the doorbell) of a victim, then running away before the door can be answered. The only names listed in the Historical Thesaurus of English are runaway knock (attested 1813) and runaway ring (1790). "Runaway Knock" is the title of paintings depicting instances of the prank by George Cruikshank (1855) and Stanhope Forbes (1888).

The name knock, knock, ginger, "knock down ginger" or knocky door ginger, used in parts of Southern England, is attested at least as early as 1867, in an English poem found in the "Childhood in Poetry" collection:

Ginger, Ginger broke a winder
Hit the winda – crack!
The baker came out to give 'im a clout
And landed on his back.