Why do we carve pumpkins for Halloween?
9/29/2016
In order to get to the general reason for the practice we have to remember that they are known as Jack o Lanterns rather than just pumpkins. This is important because the name is a direct result of its origin. And a crazy part, Jack O Lanters never even dealt with pumpkins in the first place. The name Jack O Lanterns originated in Ireland when people would carve turnips and potatoes!
But why are they called Jack O Lanterns since that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with turnips or potatoes? Well. It all deals with the legend of stingy jack! There is a centuries old myth about a man named Stingy Jack and he invited the devil to have a drink with him. But Stingy Jack was stingy and didn’t want to pay for his drink. So, he had the Devil turn himself into a coin that Jack could use in order to buy the drinks (without using money). Jack tricked the devil though. Once the devil turned into a coin, Jack put the coin (the devil) into his pocket next to a silver cross. Since he put it next to a silver cross, it prevented the devil from turning back to himself.
Jack ended up freeing the devil, but he made the devil not to bother him for a year and if he died that the devil would not claim his should. So, it was a year later and the devil returned, but Jack tricked him again. This time he tricked him into picking a piece of fruit, but while the devil was in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the trees back so the devil was stuck up there. This time, he made the devil agree not to bother him for ten years.
Anyway, Before those ten years were up, Jack died, but God wouldn’t let him into heaven because of the tricks he played. The devil wouldn’t allow Jack into hell because he was mad about the tricks Jack played on him. The devil ended up being sent into the night with only a burning coal to light up his path. Jack ended up putting the coal into a carved turnip and has been wondering around the world ever since. The Irish ended up calling the Jack, Jack OF THE lantern, which eventually got shortened to Jack o later.
Because of this myth, people in Ireland and Scotland began to make their own version of jacks lanterns by carving faces into turnips and potatoes. They would put them in their windows in order to scare away Stingy Jack. Immigrants ended up bringing the tradition here. The only reason we use pumpkins in because once the tradition made it to America, people found out pumpkins made the perfect jack o lantern. They just didn’t know before because pumpkins were native to America.
Eric Matthew explains in his awesome You Tube video:
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