A jack-o'-lantern illuminated from within by a candle.A jack-o'-lantern, sometimes also spelled Jack O'Lantern, is a pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decoratively carved. Jack-o'-lanterns are associated with the holiday Halloween. The term is not particularly common outside North America.

Traditionally the carved pumpkin would be a face, often with a simple crooked toothed grin. But toward the end of the 20th century, artists began expressing every kind of idea they could imagine on pumpkins. Today, it is common to see portraits of political candidates, celebrities and cartoon characters, just to name a few. Some artists do full three-dimensional sculptures and others work with the idea that the lighted pumpkin will project in what amounts to three shades. Cut out holes will appear white; unpeeled portions will appear black, and any area that is peeled or carved to different depths will appear as various shades of yellow/orange.

Tradition rooted in folklore

An Irish legend tells of Jack, a lazy but shrewd farmer who used a cross to trick the Devil, then refused to free him unless he agreed to never let Jack into Hell. The Devil agreed. When Jack died, the Devil wouldn't let him into Hell. So, Jack carved out one of his turnips, put a candle inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He was known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-Lantern.

There are variations on the legend. Some of which include:

The Devil mockingly tossing a coal from the fires of Hell at Jack, which Jack then places in the turnip.
Jack tricking/trapping the Devil a variety of ways, including placing a key or other item in the Devil's pocket when the Devil is suspended in the air or plucking an apple from a tree. Some versions include a "wise and good man" or even God helping Jack to prevail over the Devil.

Jack's bargain with the Devil being different. In some variations, the deal is only a temporary bargain, but the Devil, embarrassed and vengeful, refuses Jack entry after Jack dies.

Jack is considered a greedy man and is not allowed into either Heaven or Hell, without anything having to do with the Devil.
Despite the colorful legends, the term jack-o'-lantern originally meant a night watchman, or man with a lantern, with the earliest known use in the mid-17th century; and later, meaning an ignis fatuus or will-o'-the-wisp.[1] The names "Jacky Lantern" and "Jack the Lantern" persist in the oral tradition in Newfoundland, refering to the will-o'-the wisp type phenomena, rather than the carved pumpkin jack-o'-lantern.

A North American tradition

In England, Scotland, and Ireland, there is a long tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables, particularly the turnip, mangelwurzel, or swede.[2] But not until 1837 does jack-o'-lantern appear as a term for a carved vegetable lantern,[3] and the carved lantern does not become associated specifically with Halloween until 1866.[4] Significantly, both occurred not in the British Isles, but in North America.

Historian David J. Skal writes,

Although every modern chronicle of the holiday repeats the claim that vegetable lanterns were a time-honored component of Halloween celebrations in the British Isles, none gives any primary documentation. In fact, none of the major nineteenth-century chronicles of British holidays and folk customs make any mention whatsoever of carved lanterns in connection with Halloween. Neither do any of the standard works of the early twentieth century.[5]
In America, the carved pumpkin was associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween. The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was born in 1807, wrote in "The Pumpkin" (1850):

Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling,

When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
    

A record was set on October 21, 2006 when 30,128 jack-o'-lanterns were simultaneously lit on Boston Common. [6]

References

• - "Jack-o'-lantern," Oxford English Dictionary. The earliest citation is from 1663.
• - They continue to be popular choices today as carved lanterns in Scotland and Northern Ireland, although the British purchased a million pumpkins for Halloween in 2004. "Pumpkins Passions", BBC, 31 October 2005. Retrieved on 19 October 2006. - "Turnip battles with pumpkin for Hallowe'en", BBC, 28 October 2005. Retrieved 19 October 2006.
• - Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Great Carbuncle," in Twice-Told Tales, 1837:
  Hide it [the great carbuncle] under thy cloak, say'st thou? Why, it will gleam through the holes, and make thee look like a jack-o'lantern!
• - Daily News (Kingston, Ontario), November 1, 1866:
  The old time custom of keeping up Hallowe'en was not forgotten last night by the youngsters of the city. They had their maskings and their merry-makings, and perambulated the streets after dark in a way which was no doubt amusing to themselves. There was a great sacrifice of pumpkins from which to make transparent heads and face, lighted up by the unfailing two inches of tallow candle.
• - Agnes Carr Sage, "Halloween Sports and Customs," Harper's Young People, October 27, 1885, p. 828:
  It is an ancient Scottish custom to light great bonfires on Halloween, and carry blazing fagots about on long poles; but in place of this American boys delight in the funny grinning jack-o'-lanterns made of huge yellow pumpkins with a candle inside.
• - Skal, David J. (2002). Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween. New York: Bloomsbury, 32. ISBN 1-58234-230-X. The earliest reference to associate carved vegetable lanterns with Halloween in Britain is Ruth Edna Kelley, The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), Chapter 8, which mentions turnip lanterns in Scotland.
• - Michael Levenson and Kathy McCabe, A love in Common for pumpkins, The Boston Globe, October 22, 2006, p. B6.

Cite: Wikipedia