History and Customs
of Halloween
By Jerry Wilson
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the
tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and
trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image
of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made
a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would
promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to
Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell
because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single
ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was
placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when
the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far
more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a
hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.
Copyright © 2005 by Jerry Wilson. Used with Permission.
Also available on the Web at www.wilstar.com
References: Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, 1987; and Dr. Joseph Gahagan,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Personal letter, 1997
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