The Jack-O-Lantern
photo taken from wikipedia.org
There are many symbols associated with the holiday of Halloween. The most notable of these symbols is the pumpkin. The pumpkin is sometimes carved out to make a face, evil or happy, and then a candle is put inside to create light and a shadow of the form of the carved face. This is called the jack-o-lantern, and originated in Europe.
In Europe, this process was first done with turnips, and the people would do this because they believed the head was the most powerful part of the body since it contained the spirit and knowledge of a person. Due to this belief, the Celts used the head to ward off any type of superstitions. The name jack-o-lantern is traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack.
Stingy Jack was a greedy old farmer who tricked the devil into climbing a tree that was inscribed with a cross. In response to this, the devil placed a curse on Jack. The curse consisted of Jack roaming the earth every night with the only light he had. This light was the candle inside the turnip he made. From this, the jack-o-lantern has become a Halloween tradition since the 19th century.
Works Cited/ Further Reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
