The pumpkin, or “Cinderella pumpkin,” as it has been called in the past, has long been a staple of Halloween decoration. Though pumpkin pie is commonly associated with Thanksgiving and pumpkin carving is commonplace today, pumpkin carving can be traced to one event in Irish history: The Celtic festival Samhain.
Samhain was an ancient Celtic festival that was celebrated from bonfires commemorating their ancestors. During this time, people would make their own versions of turnips which they would hollow out and use as decorations. This practice spread throughout Europe and then to America where immigrants carried on the tradition using pumpkins instead.
So, today’s commonplace Halloween Pumpkin can be traced back at least 500 years and was often considered a religious practice as pumpkin carving was mostly carried out around the time of Samhain.
The first pumpkin carving in the USA is said to date back to 1663 and was recorded by Reverend Elias Harvey of Boston, who also noted that pumpkin carving was primarily done by children. Pumpkin carving became common amongst adults during the American Revolutionary War when soldiers had little else to do on Halloween other than carve designs into the pumpkins that had been used for pumpkin pies.
After pumpkin pie caught on, pumpkin carving became a holiday tradition for families across America. To this day pumpkin carvings remain popular with young and old alike.
That’s why the pumpkin is most commonly associated with Halloween. However, the pumpkin has another name that many are unaware of: the jack-o’-lantern. The term “jack-o’-lantern” derives from an Irish folktale about Stingy Jack.
According to legend, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form.
Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.
Soon after, however, Jack died. Because he had tricked the Devil twice before, he was denied entrance into heaven. He was also denied access to hell because, as the Devil stated, Jack “had the sign of God on him”.
Instead, Jack was sent out into the land of the living with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth ever since. Thus, pumpkin came to be known as “Jack O’Lanterns” in America, taking after Stingy Jack’s carved turnip.
Today’s Halloween pumpkins have become a source of fun, entertainment, and creativity – with people constantly trying to outdo each other with intricate and interesting designs.
