Today, Friday the 13th, I'm going in a slightly different direction.
I've been busy in my spare time painting pumpkins for my daughter, as I do every year. This year's theme is My Little Pony, in case you were wondering. While I was painting, I thought, why do we call them Jack O' Lanterns? And why pumpkins? Was it just because it's a "fall harvest" crop?
Wouldn't you know it? It's as if my phone heard me say that out loud, a day or two later, I was greeted with a sponsored ad on Instagram for a video about Jack O' Lanterns, pumpkins, and special carving equipment! Anyway, I decided to do some research on how it came about.
It's an interesting... and spooky... story!
The story originates in an old Irish myth about a man named "Stingy Jack." Apparently, old Jack once invited the devil himself to have a drink with him, but just like his nickname, Jack was too cheap to pay for it. He convinced the devil to turn himself into coins so that they could pay for the drinks, but rather than use the coins to pay for the drinks, he kept them for himself. He placed them in his pocket beside a silver cross that prevented his prisoner from returning to his original form.
Eventually, he released the devil on the condition that he leave him alone for a year, and should he pass away, the devil wouldn't take his soul.
Jack once again tricked the devil the following year into climbing a tree to pick fruit. Once the devil was up in the tree, Jack carved a giant cross into the trunk, preventing the devil from escaping. This time, he agreed to let his captive go in exchange for ten years without interference.
Shortly after this, Jack passed away. True to his word and still upset at the two tricks, the devil wouldn't accept Jack into hell. Instead, he forced him to spend eternity walking at night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack placed the coal into a hollowed-out turnip and has been roaming the planet ever since. The Irish began referring to his ghostly figure with a glowing turnip as Jack of the Lantern, or simply "Jack O' Lantern."
You know, I couldn't stop with just how he got his name, though. How did we get from turnips to pumpkins?
In Ireland and Scotland, people began making their own version of Jack's lantern by carving scary faces into turnips and potatoes and placing them in windows or doorways to scare off Stingy Jack and other wandering spirits.
In England, people used large beets for the same purpose.
When immigrants from these countries brought this tradition with them to the United States, they quickly discovered that the pumpkin, native to the United States, made for bigger and better Jack O' Lanterns.
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