Did you know that before we learned to draw shapes on pumpkins, the people of Ireland had already began chiseling creepy faces onto turnips? Whenever we are near the Halloween season, goulish pumpkin faces illuminated by candles are the sure signs of this ghostly celebrations.
The practice of decorating jack-o'-lanterns originated in Ireland, where large turnips and potatoes were used as early canvasses. The name jack-o'-lantern comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack who invited the Devil to have a drink with him.
True to his name, Stingy Jack did not pay for his drink and and convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that he could use to buy their drinks. Instead of Jack to pay for the drinks after the Devil agreed, he decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form.
He eventually freed the Devil under condition that he would not bother him for a year and that, should he die, the Devil won't claim his soul. The next year, Stingy Jack once again tricked the Devil into climbing a tree to pick a piece of fruit and while the Devil was up there, Jack carved a sign of cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until he promised not to bother jack for ten more years.
Soon Jack died and God would not allow him to enter heaven as he was found to be unsavory. The Devil meanwhile, was still upset with the tricks Jack had played on him and also kept his word not to claim his soul and so Jack was refused entry into hell. He sent Jack off into the night with only a burning coal to light his path. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and roamed the earth ever since.
The Irish folks began to refer to him as “Jack of the Lantern” and then, simply to “Jack O'Lantern.” The people of Ireland and Scotland began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnip's or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to scare away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack-o'-lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States and soon discovered that pumpkins, a native fruit to America, made the perfect jack-o'-lanterns.
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