The Celtic practice of carving faces into vegetables to ward off evil spirits spread to the United States with Irish immigrants in the 19th century — and soon jack-o'-lanterns were an iconic part of Halloween celebrations.
Public DomainTwo children with jack-o’-lanterns in 1919. The tradition of carving pumpkins for Halloween started in the United States in the 19th century.
Every year, the air gets cooler, leaves begin to fall from the trees, and bright orange pumpkins start to appear on porches and front yards. They’re not just pumpkins, though. They’re jack-o’-lanterns with gaping grins that glimmer from the light of candles burning inside. The jack-o’-lantern is a huge part of Halloween culture, but where did this curious tradition come from?
The history of carving fruits and vegetables — traditionally with faces, though modern artists have taken liberties with other designs — goes back hundreds of years. It likely began with Celtic celebrations, and the practice was brought to the United States by waves of 19th-century Irish immigrants.
Since then, this Halloween tradition has taken on a life of its own. Here’s everything you need to know about the history of jack-o’-lanterns, from where they get their name to why pumpkins are used today.
The History Of The Jack-O’-Lantern: The Legend Of Stingy Jack
Public DomainA child preparing a jack-o’-lantern in the 19th century.
According to Irish legend, the history of the jack-o’-lantern starts with a man named Stingy Jack (who is also sometimes called Jack the Smith, Drunk Jack, or Flaky Jack). One night, Stingy Jack had a chance encounter with the Devil. But rather than run in terror, Jack invited Satan to share a drink.
Usually, it’s the Devil who acts as a trickster, but this time the role fell to Jack. After they finished their drink, Stingy Jack — a notorious spendthrift, as his name suggests — decided he didn’t want to pay the tab. He convinced the Devil to transform into a coin.
But then, Jack decided to keep the coin.
He placed it in his pocket next to a silver cross. This meant that the Devil couldn’t convert back into his true form. Jack eventually freed him, but on two conditions: One, the Devil could not bother Jack for a full year. Two, if Jack were to die, the Devil could not claim his soul. Satan agreed, and Jack set him free.
Most people are lucky to escape the Devil once, but as the legend goes, Stingy Jack had a second encounter with Satan the very next year. This time, Jack goaded him into climbing a tree to pick a piece of fruit. The Devil — who did not learn his lesson the first time around — climbed the tree.
Then, Jack carved a cross into the bark. The Devil was trapped once again.
Public DomainA young girl carves a pumpkin in 1938.
This time, Jack struck an even bigger bargain with Satan. He promised to let the Devil out of the tree, but only if he promised to leave him alone for 10 years. Trapped and with no other choice, the Devil agreed.
But then, the history of the jack-o’-lantern took a surprising twist. Jack died. However, God did not want such a manipulative man to come into Heaven, and the Devil had promised not to claim Jack’s soul for Hell.
Jack was stuck between two realms, dead but unable to enter Heaven or Hell. He was doomed to wander the Earth for eternity. The Devil, in a surprising stroke of kindness, gave Jack a burning ember to light his way. Legend has it that Jack then stuck the ember in a carved out turnip. His roaming spirit became known as “Jack of the Lantern,” or “Jack-O’-Lantern,” and he eventually lended his name to the carved pumpkins that are an iconic part of Halloween today.
From Bog Light To Will-O’-The-Wisps
So, where did the legend of Stingy Jack begin? Some say it arose to explain an eerie phenomenon that people in the British Isles noticed on dark nights.
Public DomainA painting depicting a will-o’-the-wisp. 1862.
Hundreds of years ago, the story of Stingy Jack was used by the Irish to explain the ghostly flashes of light they sometimes saw over marshy bogs at night. These mysterious lights are known as will-o’-the-wisps, jack-o’-lanterns, friar’s lanterns, and hinkypunks, and they were rumored to lead lost travelers astray. Irish legend claimed that these ghostly apparitions were doomed Jack and his turnip lantern wandering the Earth for eternity.
Nowadays, however, we know that the eerie lights sometimes seen over bogs are not Stingy Jack at all. Rather, as explained in a 2014 article published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, this spectral luminescence comes from photon emissions dubbed ignis fatuus that marsh plants put off as they decay.
This unsettling phenomenon led to the creation of the Stingy Jack legend, which in turn led to the creation of the first jack-o’-lanterns. In Celtic countries like Ireland and Scotland, people would carve scary faces into turnips and place them in their windows to scare Stingy Jack away.
IrishFireside/FlickrA jack-o’-lantern carved from a turnip.
Faces were also carved into root vegetables during the Celtic festival of Samhain, which was celebrated on Nov. 1. On the eve of Samhain, Oct. 31, spirits of the dead were thought to walk the Earth, and so people dressed up in costumes and carved faces into vegetables to scare off restless souls.
This spooky tradition was then brought to the United States by 19th-century immigrants.
The History Of The Jack-O’-Lantern In The United States
As many as 4.5 million Irish immigrants came to the United States between 1820 and 1930. They brought numerous traditions with them, including that of the jack-o’-lantern.
Public DomainImmigrants arriving at Ellis Island. Between 1820 and 1860, Irish immigrants represented more than one-third of the total immigrant population coming to the United States.
Pumpkins, which are native to the Americas, proved to be better for carving than turnips. And it didn’t take long for the pumpkin and the jack-o’-lantern to appear on front lawns — and in American literature.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, written between 1819 and 1820, famously made pumpkins scarier than they had ever been before. Nathaniel Hawthorne made early allusions to the jack-o’-lantern in his short stories “The Great Carbuncle” (1835) and “Feathertop” (1852). And the first image of a pumpkin jack-o’-lantern probably appeared in an 1867 issue of Harper’s Weekly.
Meanwhile, more and more Americans began to celebrate Halloween, which is a direct descendant of the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Around 1000 C.E., the Catholic Church started celebrating All Saints’ Day, which borrowed heavily from Samhain. The night before became known as All Hallows’ Eve — and then Halloween.
Though celebrations of Halloween were limited until the 19th century, the proliferation of Irish immigrants made the holiday more popular.
Public DomainThis illustration from an 1867 issue of Harper’s Weekly is probably the first to depict the jack-o’-lantern carved from a pumpkin. Nowadays, that image is ubiquitous.
Today, Halloween is celebrated around the world. Children dress up in costumes, candy is handed out, and people put jack-o’-lanterns on their porches or lawns. In some ways, it’s a very modern holiday. But the history of the jack-o’-lantern is a long and ancient one.
First born in Celtic bogs as people started trying to explain flashes of eerie light they noticed in the darkness, ignis fatuus led to the legend of Stingy Jack. This, in turn, led to carving turnips. Samhain celebrations and immigrants from Ireland then helped bring about the modern traditions of Halloween and jack-o’-lanterns.
So, the next time you see a grinning jack-o’-lantern, think about what’s represented in its empty grin and glowing eyes. More than a fun Halloween tradition, it’s a piece of history and lore passed down over hundreds of years.
After learning about the history of the jack-o’-lantern, go inside these horrifying murders that took place on Halloween. Then, take a look at creepy Halloween costumes of decades past.
