Keep carving and carry on – it’s pumpkin season (Picture: Getty)
A haven for all things spooky and kooky, Halloween is a wonderful time of year to take part in some odd traditions without really questioning why – but if you were ever curious, there’s a fascinating history behind All Hallow’s Eve.
Dress up and go trick or treating? Why not. Say Candyman five times in front of a mirror? Only if you’re brave enough. Carve a pumpkin? Wouldn’t be Halloween without one! (Although some people are just finding out they’ve been doing it wrong all this time.)
But there’s – fittingly – a dark origin story behind the carved pumpkins, and why we make Jack-o’-lanterns out of them.
Why do we carve pumpkins?
Whether you carve in a classic spooky face or you try something a bit fancy, the origin of carving pumpkins and popping a light inside goes back centuries – and involves a man named Jack.
Jack, or, according to some sources, Stingy Jack, is a character from Irish folklore.
Jack was said to be a blacksmith who tricked the Devil for his own financial gain. After Jack died, God didn’t allow him into heaven, and the Devil didn’t let him into hell.
Stingy Jack is why we carve pumpkins to this day (Picture: Getty)
Instead, Jack was sentenced to roam the earth for eternity. The people of Ireland would carve demonic faces out of turnips to frighten away Jack’s wandering soul.
Another take on the same tale has it that Jack was the one who would wander with a lantern made from a turnip, as he was cast out of heaven and hell with just a lump of coal to guide him.
In the 1800s, a lot of people left England and Ireland to go and live in America.
They took their Halloween traditions with them, but instead of carving turnips, they made their Halloween lanterns out of pumpkins – purely because there’s an abundance of pumpkins local to the land.
And, as a result, a tradition was made.
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Why are they called Jack-o’-lanterns?
They are named after the character from folklore.
Whether to ward off his soul or because Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure wandering the land with his lit turnip as ‘Jack of the Lantern’ and then, simply ‘Jack O’Lantern,’ the name stuck.
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A spooky origin story for spooky season.