JACK-O'-LANTERN

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.

Contents

Pumpkin craft

Pumpkin Carving World Records and Pumpkin Festivals

Tradition rooted in folklore

A North American tradition

References

See also

Further reading

External links

Pumpkin craft

Sections of the pumpkin are cut out to make a design, often depicting a face. A variety of tools may be used to carve and hollow out the gourd, ranging from simple knives and spoons to specialized instruments. Printed stencils can be used as a guide for increasingly complex designs. It is possible to create surprisingly artistic designs, be they simple or intricate in nature. After carving, a light source (traditionally a candle, now often a battery-operated light) is placed inside the pumpkin and the top is put back into place. The light illuminates the design from the inside. Sometimes a chimney is carved in the lid to allow heat to escape.
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.

Pumpkin Carving World Records and Pumpkin Festivals

For a long time, Keene, New Hampshire held the world record for most jack-o'-lanters carved and lit in one place. Life is Good teamed up with Camp Sunshine a camp for children with life threatening illnesses and their families, to break the record. On October 21, 2006, they accomplished the goal by carving and lighting 30,128 jack-o'-lanterns in Boston Commons after trying since 2003. Pumpkin festivals were also held in several locations across the United States, and while the numbers of jack-o'-lanterns carved and lit in these locations were much lower, funds were raised for Camp Sunshine and other charities.

Tradition rooted in folklore

An Irish legend tells of Jack, a lazy but shrewd farmer who uses a cross to trap the Devil. One story says that Jack tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree, and once he was up there Jack quickly placed crosses around the trunk or carved a cross into the bark, so that the Devil couldn't get down. Another myth says that Jack put a key in the Devil's pocket while he was suspended upside-down;
Another myth says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers whome he had stolen from, when he met the Devil: it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (the Devil could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin/Devil disapeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet... only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped.
In both myths, Jack only lets the Devil go when he agrees to never take his soul.
After a while the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, his life had been too sinful for Jack to go to heaven; however, the Devil had promised not to take his soul, and so he was barred from Hell as well. Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go , as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which was his favourite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o-Lantern.
There are variations on the legend:

★ Some versions include a "wise and good man", or even God helping Jack to prevail over the Devil.

★ There are different versions of Jack's bargain with the Devil. Some variations say the deal was only temporary but the Devil, embarrassed and vengeful, refuses Jack entry to hell after Jack dies.

★ Jack is considered a greedy man and is not allowed into either heaven or hell, without any mention of 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, referring to the will-o'-the-wisp type phenomena, rather than the carved pumpkin jack-o'-lantern.

A North American tradition

In 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.^[6] The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was born in 1807, wrote in "The Pumpkin" (1850):
A record was set on October 21, 2006 when 30,128 jack-o'-lanterns were simultaneously lit on Boston Common. ^[7]

References

1. "Jack-o'-lantern," ''Oxford English Dictionary''. The earliest citation is from 1663.
2. 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.
3. 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!
4. ''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.
5. Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween, , David J., Skal, Bloomsbury, 2002, 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.
6. As late as 1900, an article on Thanksgiving entertaining recommended a lit jack-o'-lantern as part of the festivities. "The Day We Celebrate: Thanksgiving Treated Gastronomically and Socially," ''The New York Times'', Nov. 24, 1895, p. 27. "Odd Ornaments for Table," ''The New York Times'', Oct. 21, 1900, p. 12.
7. Michael Levenson and Kathy McCabe, A love in Common for pumpkins, ''The Boston Globe'', October 22, 2006, p. B6.

See also

★ Pumpkin Fest -- Keene, New Hampshire, former long-time world's record holder for most lit jack-o'-lanterns in one place

★ Pumpkin Carving Festival -- Manchester, Vermont, record holder for "most pumpkins carved simultaneously".

★ Pumpkin queen

★ The Great Pumpkin

★ Trick-or-treating

★ Will o' the wisp

Further reading

★ Ben Truwe, ''The Halloween Catalog Collection''. Medford, Oregon: Talky Tina Press, 2003. ISBN 0-9703448-5-6. Contains a well-documented history of the jack-o'-lantern as an emblem of Halloween.

External links

★ Jack-O-Lantern.com — World's first Jack O'Lantern dedicated web site - Free Patterns and instructions

★ Blaze.org — Great Jack O Lantern Blaze!, Historic Hudson Valley New York

★ How to carve a pumpkin

★ Pumpkin Carving Stencils

★ Designs and carving tips ('Warning: some graphic material')

★ Pumpkin carvings by Hugh McMahon

★ History Channel Exhibits: The History of Halloween

★ American Catholic - Tale of the Jack O'Lantern