After all, the carved pumpkin has evolved into the modern icon of the one holiday dedicated to fright. The shell is made of real wax coating and the flame flickers like a real candle. It’s no surprise then that each aspect of the journey to the jack-o’-lantern as we know it - the legend of Stingy Jack, marsh lights and the carved pumpkin trick - carries a certain air of mystery. 794 Extra Savings Promotion Available 1 Applicable Promotion Color: Multi-a-01 100 ABS Imported Halloween LED Jack-O-Lantern Face PumpkinThe design of the pumpkin candles is special and lifelike. Despite scientific explanations for these flashes, “marsh lights” held their sinister air of mystery for hundreds of years, inspiring even more stories of how they were related to the dead, Bannatyne says. illuminated by coal, wooden embers, or candles as a way to ward off evil. Like all good legends, the tale of Stingy Jack was born from some truth, as a medieval explanation for the “flame-like phosphorescence caused by gases from decaying plants in marshy areas,” as Merriam-Webster’s dictionary puts it. These illuminated jack olanterns are placed to form impressive displays from. By the early 20th century, carved pumpkins had adopted the name we now use. It was only after 19th century Americans saw the connection between the legend and the spookily lit-up carved pumpkins they were creating that the two came to be seen as connected. In fact, European art from the 16th century used the pumpkin as a symbol for North American “untamed wilderness,” as she explains.īut still, the story of Jack and his lantern has nothing to do with a pumpkin. And the pumpkin itself was a rather sinister vegetable historically, Bannatyne writes. “Jack of the lantern,” according to that version of the history, became “Jack-o’-Lantern.”īased on Jack’s tale, there remains a bit of irony in his pumpkin’s symbolic ability for bringing people together. The devil leaves Jack with nothing other than a burning piece of coal, and Jack wanders aimlessly for the rest of eternity: just a ghost and his floating light. The devil leaves Jack with nothing other than a burning piece of coal, and Jack wanders aimlessly for the rest of eternity: just a ghost and his floating light. In many versions of the story, the frustrates the devil so much that upon his death, he is locked out from the gates of Hell. Often called “Stingy” Jack, he spends much of his life tricking the devil. Jack-o-lanterns originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed Stingy Jack, who tricked the Devil and was forced to roam the earth with only a burning coal in a turnip to light his way. The story, which has several different iterations, can be traced back to as long ago as 1551, Bannatyne says, and is quite sinister indeed. So, where did the name Jack come from? There are a few steps in this story, and the etymology of “jack-o’-lantern” is almost unrelated to its modern meaning and tradition.Īccording to one prominent theory, the “Jack” in question is the subject of an old folktale.
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