By Allison Eichler SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
October is the time of year when handmade signs promising pumpkin patches, corn mazes and hayrides decorate the sides of every road. Pumpkins are a staple of October, and houses in every neighborhood will display their fair share on front porch steps. Some are painted and some are given faces and have a warm glow from a candle hidden inside.
Surely at least once in your life you carved a pumpkin into a jack-o’-lantern, but have you ever stopped to wonder how jack-o’-lanterns became such a seasonal icon? Who decided that scooping out a pumpkin and carving it up would become a Halloween tradition? As it turns out, the first jack-o’-lanterns were not carved from pumpkins, but rather from turnips, potatoes and beets.
The story of the jack-o’-lantern starts with the Irish legend of Stingy Jack. Making good on his name, Jack tricked the devil into turning himself into a coin. Jack put the coin in his pocket next to a silver cross so the devil couldn’t change himself back. Jack would only remove the coin from his pocket under the condition that upon Jack’s death the devil would not claim his soul. After Jack’s eventual passing, God, dismayed with Jack’s trickery, would not allow him into heaven and the devil would not allow him into hell. Instead, the devil left Jack with nothing but a burning coal to light his way through the night. Jack made a lantern for himself by putting his coal into a carved out turnip. Legend has it that he’s been wandering Earth ever since.
Fearful of Jack and other evil spirits that roam around at night, people would ward off these supernatural beings by making their own versions of Jack’s lantern. Placed in windows or near doors, the Irish and Scottish carved scary faces into turnips or potatoes, and the English carved up large beets. The name of jack-o’-lantern comes from the Irish, who referred to the legendary Stingy Jack as “Jack of the Lantern,” and the traditional pumpkin began to be used after immigrants from Ireland, Scotland and England came to America and discovered that pumpkins were the perfect vessel for creating a jack-o’-lantern.
Nowadays, pumpkins are not usually carved and displayed for the purpose of keeping spirits away. Pumpkins have become a time-honored way to show Halloween spirit, and for the carving-inclined, a way to show off artistic ability. Carving has become nothing short of an art form and contests across the nation run wild with creativity, imagination and talent. On your next Target run, pick up a carving kit and you just might create your own award winning jack-o’-lantern.