The origin of Halloween pumpkins is not as simple as you might think.
Carved into terrifying faces and illuminated by flickering candlelight, pumpkins have long become one of the most iconic symbols of Halloween.
Pumpkin Jack-o’-lantern.
However, did you know that there is a rather bizarre story behind it?
The legend of the pumpkin begins with a character named Stingy Jack. One fateful night, Jack invited the devil Satan to drink with him. Being miserly and unwilling to pay, he persuaded Satan to transform into a coin so he could use it to buy drinks.
For some reason, Satan agreed. However, Jack proved that he could be miserly at all times by deciding not to buy any drinks and instead pocketing the coin. He even tricked Satan by placing a silver cross to keep the devil from changing back.
Jack then demanded that Satan ensure he would not take his soul after he died. To return to his original form, Satan reluctantly accepted this condition.
Satan also became a victim of Jack’s tricks.
On another occasion, Jack tricked Satan into climbing a tree while he carved a cross into the trunk so the devil couldn’t get down. The condition he imposed was that the devil could not harm him for ten years.
Not long after, Jack died. God would not allow Jack into heaven and cast him down to hell. However, due to the promise still being in effect, Satan could not keep Jack and cast him into eternal darkness, along with a piece of coal to light his way.
Jack burned the coal, placed it inside a hollowed-out turnip, and wandered about, scaring children. Since then, Jack’s ghost has been known as Jack-o’-lantern, and every Halloween, people carve scary faces into turnips, potatoes, and eventually pumpkins, as we do today. Inside, they place candles to ward off evil spirits, just as Jack did long ago.
Stingy Jack and the turnip lantern.
Since then, it has become customary for people to place candles inside potatoes during Halloween to ward off evil spirits.
When the tradition moved from Ireland and the UK to the United States, people found that pumpkins, a crop native to this land, were easy to hollow out and carve into scary, mischievous faces. They began placing candles inside the pumpkins to light the way for wandering spirits.
Over time, due to the influence of the United States, many places around the world have adopted the pumpkin for Halloween, and it gradually became a defining symbol of the holiday.
