August 31, 2025
Description
The modern jack-o'-lantern tradition originates from an Irish folktale about a man called “Stingy Jack”. After repeatedly tricking the Devil, Jack was denied entry into both Heaven and Hell upon his death. The Devil sent him away with a burning coal to light his path, which Jack placed inside a carved-out turnip. This ghostly figure, "Jack of the Lantern," became a warning against greed, and the Irish began carving frightening faces into turnips and potatoes to ward off his spirit. When Irish immigrants brought this tradition to North America in the 19th century, they found that native pumpkins were a larger, easier, and more abundant substitute for their root vegetables, evolving the turnip lantern into the pumpkin jack-o'-lantern known today.
Here is the Haunted rendition of Jack's Lantern.
License:
Standard Digital File License