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The History of Jack O-Lantern
The original Jack o Lantern story came from the Irish hundreds of years ago. The story was told about a man called Stingy Jack who was an old drunk and a gambler, a miserable man. He loved nothing better than to play mean tricks on others. No one was immune from his nasty tricks - not his family or his friends. Not his mother, or even the devil himself. He had a very bad attitude and was untrustworthy. One day he deceived the Devil. He tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree and soon placed crosses around the trunk of the tree. The Devil was then unable to get down the tree. Stingy Jack then made a proposition to remove the crosses if the Devil promised not to take his soul (to hell) when he died. The devil reluctantly agreed and Stingy Jack released him.
Many years later, Stingy Jack died. Unfortunately, Saint Peter didn’t allow him to enter heaven because of his bad attitude during life. He then went to hell, but the Devil kept his promise he made in that old apple tree and could not accept him in hell. Stingy Jack now had nowhere to go but to wander forever in the darkness between heaven and hell. He was scared and asked Devil to give him light. The Devil gave him an ember from the fires of hell which was then placed inside a hollowed out turnip. Since that day, Stingy Jack has roamed the earth perpetually with the light from his hollowed turnip lantern.
On a Hallow’s eve, the Irish put rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets inside a hollowed out turnips. They put a light inside it and placed the turnip next to windows to keep Stingy Jack away. This was originally called “Jack O’Lantern”. And when the Irish came to America, they found pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve out. So then, they used pumpkins for Jack O’Lanterns.
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