Turnips & Tradition
Jack-o’-lanterns are synonymous with Halloween. They can be fun, they can be frightening—but just where do they come from?
Jack-o’-lanterns originated in Ireland, and though they didn’t have access to pumpkins, they would carve turnips and rutabaga.
Modern turnip jack-o’-lantern/CC Bodrugan
As Irish immigrated to America, they found pumpkins to be far easier to carve than turnips for Halloween.
Now jack-o’-lantern carving has exploded and the ghoulish gourds are everywhere.
1982 Largest jack-o’-lantern
But why did the Irish decide to make vegetables into lanterns?
The Legend of Stingy Jack
Irish folklore is full of descriptions of a mysterious character known as Stingy Jack. A drunkard and cheat, Jack manages to swindle the devil.
Traditional Irish jack-o’-lantern/CC rannṗáirtí anaiṫnid
According to legend, Jack convinces Satan to turn into a coin to pay his bar tab, explaining that the devil can then turn back into his demonic form and escape.
Satan agrees and Jack sticks the devil-coin into his wallet, which also contains a crucifix, sapping Satan’s powers and trapping him.
Another version says that Jack convinced the devil to climb a tree and then trapped Satan by carving a cross into the trunk.
Jack only releases the devil after he promises not to take his soul.
Eventually, Jack dies, but is refused access to heaven for his sinful deeds, and barred from Hell because of the deal he made.
Satan however gives Jack a single ember from Hell which Jack put inside a turnip to light his way as he roams the world between the dead and living, trying to lure people to their deaths in hopes of meeting the devil again.
Jack’s lantern is an alternate explanation for Will-o-the-wisps
And So the Legend Goes
Next time you see a jack-o’-lantern in the distance, make sure to double-check that it’s not old Stingy Jack trying to lure you to your death.
What about that abusive catholic Peter Pumpkin-Eater? The story goes, Peter’s an abusive wife beater… his wife gets sick of Peter’s abuse and she looks for help from a local medicine-woman/”witch” who tells the abused housewife to lead her scummy hubby to a local field at midnight for a “cure”. Well, that very night… which just happens to be Halloween… her husband comes back from work and starts to beat her as usual and she runs out the door into the farm field where the medicine-woman told her to go. Peter chases his wife into the field, with the Halloween moon eerily shining above. He hits his wife across the face, knocking out one of her teeth… which hits the cold soil like a seed. The blood from her mouth hits the earth as well, splattering over the fallen tooth… and as if by some strange magic of the Halloween moon’s light, the tooth begins to sprout vines and snares Peter, wrapping him up, dragging him down into a hole opened up to Hell, never to hit his wife again. They say… every year on that same spot, a pumpkin patch grows, and the people of that town pick pumpkins from it in order to carve them up to ridicule Peter the Pumpkin Eater, who they say… is trapped in hell forever, only being able to rise from the grave… as a patch of pumpkins.
Believe it… or not!
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