Jack o'Lantern
The spooky Jack o'Lantern with its demonic glowing eyes is a standard image of Halloween. Yet have you ever stopped to wonder why we do something as strange as carve faces in pumpkins once a year? It turns out to be an ancient Irish tradition.
Halloween has always been a time for telling of ghostly tales and warding against the spirits. One such tale involves a mean Irishman called Jack.
Cheating the Devil
According to the legend, Jack would go to great lengths to avoid spending money, even resorting to tricking and cheating on his friends. Ultimately he made the mistake of turning his skills as a conman on the Devil himself.Some say he met the Devil in a pub. There he persuaded the Devil to turn himself into a sixpence so that Jack could have one lest drink before the Devil took his soul - the Devil obliged, at which point Jack placed the sixpence in a bag with a silver sixpence that prevented his from turning back. Another tale says that Jack persuaded the Devil to climb a tree to get him an apple - whilst the devil was up the tree, Jack carved a cross on the trunk to prevent him getting down.
Whichever story you pefer, Jack eventually struck a deal where he would release the Devil in return for not having his soul taken to Hell. When Jack finally died he strode confidently to the gates of Heaven, only to be refused entry because of his mean, cheating ways. The Devil refused to let him into Hell - sticking to the bargain Jack had unwisely made - so Jack had nowhere left to go. His restless spirit, it's said, walks the earth for eternity, forever looking for new victims to trick and cheat.
Halloween is a time when spirits walk abroad. The Jack o'Lantern pumpkin head represents one such spirit to be avoided. Some say the glowing eyes represent the soul of a man who is damned yet denied even the peace of Hell.
The Pumpkin Head
All that makes sense as a scary Halloween tale, but why a pumpkin? Well it probably began as a large potato or turnip in Ireland. When the custom reached America the pumpkin was found to be even better for carving.