A jack o’ lantern is a carved pumpkin, turnip or beet, associated chiefly with the holiday of Hallowe’en, and was named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called will-o’-the-wisp or jack-o’-lantern. In a jack-o’-lantern, the top is cut off, and the inside flesh then scooped out; an image, usually a monstrous face, is carved out, and the lid replaced.
The origin of Jack o’ Lantern carving is uncertain. The carving of vegetables has been a common practice in many parts of the world, with Gourds being the earliest plant species domesticated by humans c. 10,000 years ago, primarily for their carving potential. But the innovation of carving a Jack-O-Lantern specifically to celebrate Halloween was first recorded in the U.S., with the earliest known reference occurring in 1866. There is a common belief that its carving came to the U.S. from Ireland, where turnips, mangelwurzel or beets were supposedly used. According to historian Ronald Hutton, in the 19th century, Halloween guisers in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands commonly used jack-o’-lanterns made from turnips and mangelwurzels. They were “often carved with grotesque faces to represent spirits or goblins”. In these areas, 31 October–1 November was known as Samhain and it was seen as a time when spirits or fairies were particularly active.
The story of the Jack-O’-lantern comes in many variants and is similar to the story of Will-o’-the-wisp retold in different forms across Western Europe, with variations being present in the folklore of Norway, Sweden, England, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Italy and Spain. An old Irish folk tale from the mid-19th Century tells of Stingy Jack, a lazy yet shrewd farmer who uses a cross to trap the Devil. One story says that Jack tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree, and once he was up there Jack quickly placed crosses around the trunk or carved a cross into the bark, so that the Devil couldn’t get down. Another tale says that Jack put a key in the Devil’s pocket while he was suspended upside-down.
Another version of the story says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers from whom he had stolen, when he met the Devil, who claimed it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (the Devil could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin/Devil disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack’s wallet, only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped.
In both folktales, Jack only lets the Devil go when he agrees never to take his soul. After a while the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, his life had been too sinful for Jack to go to heaven; however, the Devil had promised not to take his soul, and so he was barred from hell as well. Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember from the flames of hell, that would never burn out. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which were his favorite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as “Jack of the Lantern”, or Jack-o’-lantern.
Jack-o-lanterns were also considered a way of protecting your home against the undead, especially vampires.
In recent times, the most famous use of a Halloween jack o’ lantern was during the credit sequence for John Carpenter’s iconic 1978 horror film Halloween.
