History of Jack-O-Lanterns

The carved pumpkin, lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols. This is a Scottish and Irish tradition of carving a lantern which goes back centuries. 700,000 immigrants came to America in the 1800s during the Irish Potato Famine, bringing with them the traditions of Halloween and the use of Jack-O-Lanterns. Traditionally, the lantern was carved from a turnip, potato, or beet and lit with a burning lump of coal or a candle. These lanterns represented the souls of the departed loved ones and were placed in windows or set on porches to welcome the deceased. They also served as protection against malevolent sprits or goblins freed from the dead. Turnips and gourds were not as readily available in the Americas so the pumpkin was used and found to be quite an adequate replacement. The pumpkin jack-o-lantern has been an essential part of Halloween celebrations since the Victorian days and today is a universal symbol of Halloween. The carving of pumpkins was first associated with Halloween in North America, where the pumpkin was available, and much larger and easier to carve. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their home's doorstep after dark. The jack-o-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard drinking old farmer who tricked the devil into climbing a tree, and trapped him by carving a cross into the trunk of the tree. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack which dooms him to forever wander the earth at night. For centuries, the bedtime parable was told by Irish parents to their children. But in America the tradition of carving pumpkins is known to have preceded the Great Famine period of Irish immigration, and the tradition of carving vegetable lanterns may also have been brought over by the Scottish or English. So this concludes the lessons on the history of Halloween and the Jack-O-Lantern. I find it all very fascinating.

Carving Pumpkins

October 25, 2006
Our grand daughter, Hannah, was here with us for the weekend. I bought 2 pumpkins and a carving kit for us to carve pumpkins for Halloween. I thought Hannah would enjoy it and so would I. I let her choose what design she wanted and I chose one I wanted to carve. She chose the cat and I chose the witch and ghost. I have always wanted to carve a pumpkin like this but never knew how to do anything other than the typical jack-o-lantern with the triangle eyes, nose and snaggle-tooth mouth. The kit was wonderful and made it so easy! Hannah was great working on her pumpkin. She took the time and followed the directions well and the end result was beautiful. My design was more delicate and I goofed in one spot but it was no big deal in the overall look. Last night we placed candles in our pumpkins and they looked fantastic.

Today we went on a geo-cache hunt. If you don't know what that is look it up on the Internet. It is a fun thing to do but we never found the cache at the two sites we visited. I am now ready to buy a GPS and start doing this all the time. It is lots of fun, you get exercise and see places you probably would not otherwise visit.

Hannah had to go back home this afternoon but we sure had a fun time together!

Linda and Hannah carve the pumpkins Hannah's cat-o-lantern

Linda's witch-o-lantern

Hannah and the Jack-O-Lanterns

Hannah hard at work tracing out the designs before carving

Hannah was here for the weekend and we decided to make a trip to the pumpkin patch and choose a couple of large pumpkins to carve into Jack-O-Lanterns. Unfortunately the pumpkin patch is not open for business until October 8 so.... we had to go to a local grocery store and choose a couple of pumpkins there. We came home and carved the pumpkins... one on Saturday and the other one on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. We did the same thing last year and Hannah enjoyed it so much I decided to continue the tradition and do it again this year. Below are a couple of pictures of Hannah with the final projects.

By the way... I have posted all the answers to the "What Is It" games. Thanks to those who guessed. There may be more to come if we find more things to photograph.

And for those interested... click here to read about the History of the Jack-O-Lantern. You will have to scroll down a little when the new page opens. I posted this info last year and thought it was pretty interesting.

Hannah with her choice, the Hallo-window

Hannah with thh Hallo-window and the skeleton with bat