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All Hallows Eve is here again, and for sure there'd be a lot of things all around town that would represent this day.
Take the Jack-O'-Lantern for example. In almost everywhere we go during Halloween, we and of course, admire it.
A lot of people don't know: Why does the Jack-O'-Lantern represent Halloween? What is the story behind this peculiar, but very interesting thing? and Where did the practice (of carving pumpkins) originate from?
Let us acquaint ourselves with the history of The Jack-O'-Lantern
First off there's the Pumpkin History. References to pumpkins date back many centuries. The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for "large melon" which is "pepon." "Pepon" was nasalized by the French into "pompon." The English changed "pompon" to "Pumpion." Shakespeare referred to the "pumpion" in his Merry Wives of Windsor . American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin." The "pumpkin" is referred to in stories, such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater and Cinderella.
The legend of the Jack-O'-Lantern comes from 18th century Ireland and there have been a LOT of variations of the story but the story is still the same.
The Jack-O'-Lantern originated from Ireland and not in the USA. The Irish talked about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack."
According to the story, Stingy Jack was an old drunk who made a deal with the Devil. Stingy Jack was one of the stingiest men in town (that is how he earned his name). One evening Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have drink with him. Jack (being stingy and anxious to maintain his reputation) didn't want to pay for his drinks. So he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a shilling or coin. In return, Jack would relinquish his soul.
The devil snorted at such child's play and instantly changed himself into a shilling.
Once the Devil had made the transformation, Jack decided to keep the money and put it in his pocket next to a silver cross. This prevented the Devil from changing back to his true form.
The year rolled around to the next Halloween, but Jack never got around to repenting. Again the devil appeared to claim his soul, and again Jack bargained, this time challenging him to a game of dice, an offer Satan could never resist, but a game that Jack excelled at. The devil threw snake eyes—two ones—and was about to haul him off, but Jack used a pair of dice he himself had whittled. When they landed as two threes, forming the T-shape of a cross, once again the devil was powerless. Jack bargained for more time to repent.
Then since Jack wasn't eager to die, he convinced the Devil to climb a nearby tree to pluck and him an apple. As the Devil climbed the tree, Jack carved a cross in the tree's trunk--preventing the Devil from coming back down. The angry and deceived Devil demanded that Jack release him.
He kept thinking he’d get around to repentance later, at the last possible minute. But the agreed-upon day arrived and death took him by surprise. The devil hadn’t showed up and Jack soon found out why not. Before he knew it Jack was in front of the pearly gates. St. Peter shook his head sadly and could not admit him, because in his whole life Jack had never performed a single selfless act. Then Jack presented himself before the gates of hell, but the devil was still seething. Satan refused to have anything to do with him.
"Where can I go?" cried Jack. "How can I see in the darkness?"
"Back where you come from," spoke the Devil.
The night was dark and the way was long, and the Devil tossed him a lighted coal from the fire of Hell. Jack, who was eating a turnip at the time, placed the coal inside and used it to light his way. Jack had been roaming around the Earth ever since, as he has nowhere to go.
The Irish called this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern" which later became, "Jack-O'-Lantern."
Since then the people from Ireland and Scotland, began to making their own versions of Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits.
Where did this practice (of carving pumpkins) originate from?
Carving Jack-O'-Lanterns is a custom that dates back to ancient Ireland, although the first Jack-o-Lanterns were made of turnips, beets or even hollowed out potatoes, not pumpkins.
The large orange squashes didn't come into prominence until Irish immigrants, escaping "The Hunger" or the "Great Potato Famine" (which started about 1846 and lasted until 1860) came to the United States, where pumpkins were cheaper and more plentiful than turnips.
The word Jack O Lantern was first used to describe a mysterious light seen at night flickering over marshes. When approached, it advances, always out of reach.
The phenomenon is also known as will of the wisp and ignis fatuus (foolish fire.) It is considered ominous and is often thought to be the soul of one who has been rejected by hell carrying its own hell coal on its wanderings.
The practice of carving faces on pumpkins eventually spread worldwide, becoming an enduring symbol of Halloween and the Autumn feast.
Remember the legend of the Jack-O'-Lantern, while you carve a pumpkin and set it on your doorstep this Halloween.
Credit the Irish with putting a colorful face on Halloween.
What would Halloween be like without the Jack-O'-Lantern? I can't even imagine!
=)
- Thank you Miss Emmy and Daire (The good and NEVER stingy Irish people) for backing me up on this. If I have made mistakes in the use of the knowledge these kind people imparted, blame me.
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