Tonight, porches all over the country will glow with carved pumpkins. It is such a familiar sight that it is easy to forget the jack-o-lantern did not start out as a pumpkin at all. The story behind it involves Ireland, turnips, an old folk tale and a lot of people crossing an ocean.
It started in Ireland
Clemson University's Home and Garden Information Center traces the jack-o-lantern to Ireland, where Halloween traditions grew out of the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Historians are not sure exactly how far back the carving goes, but the custom is old.
The first lanterns were not pumpkins. Clemson notes that pumpkins are not native to Ireland and only arrived there in more modern times. Instead, people carved root vegetables, especially turnips, which grew well there. A hollowed-out turnip made a small, simple lantern.
The tale of Stingy Jack
The name comes with a story. In the Irish folk tale, a stingy man named Jack tricks the Devil, not once but twice. When Jack dies, he is turned away from Heaven, and the Devil, still sore about being tricked, will not let him into Hell either. The Devil gives him a single glowing ember, and Jack sets it inside a hollowed-out turnip to light his way as he wanders the earth.
Clemson notes that the oldest known written version of the tale dates to the 1800s. In the telling Clemson shares, townsfolk carved their own turnip lanterns on Halloween night to steer Jack's wandering spirit away from their homes.
Where the name comes from
The words themselves had a life before Halloween. Word histories show that in the 1600s, a jack-o-lantern was a night watchman, simply a man who carried a lantern. Jack had been a common name for any boy or man for a long time, and the "o'" is short for "of," so the phrase meant something like "Jack of the lantern."
The same name was also used for the strange flickering lights sometimes seen at night over marshes and bogs, also called will-o'-the-wisps. Over time, the name settled on the carved lanterns of the Halloween story.
How the pumpkin took over
When Irish immigrants came to North America, they brought their Halloween traditions with them. Clemson points out that here they found pumpkins, which are native to North America and grow in large numbers. A pumpkin is bigger than a turnip, easier to hollow out and much easier to carve, and before long the orange pumpkin became the jack-o-lantern we know today.
That shift is part of why so many pumpkins are grown and sold each fall. Our post on the pumpkins Ohio farms grow explains how much of the crop here goes straight to fall porches and farm markets.
Jack-o-lanterns today
Today the jack-o-lantern has come a long way from a hollowed-out turnip. People carve faces, patterns and scenes, use battery lights instead of embers, and decorate pumpkins of every shape and color. Our post on pumpkin types explained covers the different kinds and what each is best for.
The basic idea has stayed the same for a very long time, though. A carved face, a small light inside, and a place by the door on a dark October night.
A good story for tonight
If you have kids carving or handing out candy this evening, the tale of Stingy Jack is a fun one to tell. It explains the name, and it gives them a reason to think twice about tricking anyone. Happy Halloween from our family to yours.
Questions about your pumpkins?
If you have a pumpkin question we did not cover here, we would be glad to help. Call or text us at (513) 409-0005, or send a message through our contact page. We are a family-run business right here in the Springboro, Dayton and Cincinnati area, and we are always happy to talk pumpkins.