Halloween

                                          Jack-O'-Lantern

Jack-0'-Lantern! Jack-O'-Lantern!  Where - O- Where do you come from?

Well, there are many theories about this, and I will tell you one. Will it be scary or funny? You decide.

Back in the old-time days of Ireland, there was a spritely fellow called Stingy Jack.   He was a reprehensible fellow. He did not take his pay home to his wife like a good Irishman should; he did not attend the fine church in his village, much to the horror of all his neighbors, and he never, never gave a pence to the poor. Oh, no. Not he.

Now they say that such a man as Stingy Jack could meet and talk with the Devil. And one Halloween, the Devil and he met. Jack invited the Devil for a drink.

The Devil said, said he, "I'll take a drink with you if you pay for it."

"Now, why should I pay for your drink? You are a clever fellow. You can change yourself into anything you want. Change into a sixpence. I'll pay for the drink, and you can change back."

"Umm. You have something there. I'll do it."  The Devil mumbled and muttered a spell, and he became a shining new sixpence.

Jack picked up the coin and slid it into his pocket next to a Christian cross. This prevented the Devil from getting out of the pocket.  

 Jack said, "Now listen here to me. If you promise to leave me alone for one year, I'll let you out. If not, you stay right in there."

The Devil angrily and reluctantly promised, and Jack let him out.

The Devil kept his promise, and Jack thought he would go to church, give to the poor and take his pay home to his dear wife during the year.   But as with most good intentions of breaking evil ways, Jack was soon living his former life.

On the next Halloween, he again met the Devil on a lonely, dark road. He said to the Devil, said he, "If you spare me for ten years, I'll buy you a drink and pay for it myself."
"Sure, that sounds fair. You can not trick me again, as you are paying and not I. It is a deal."
The Devil and Jack shook hands.
  However, the Devil is the master of all lies, and Jack died before the year ended.

Jack could not go to heaven, so he went to the gates of hell.

The Devil saw him and said, "Go away. Go back and wander the earth. You tricked me, and I want nothing to do with you. Wander in the dark for eternity."

"But I can't see. It's too dark." whimpered Stingy Jack.

"Here, take this burning coal and carry it to light your way. And as you go about, cause mischief on all the land. Now be Gone." And the Devil shut the gate, so Jack was left in the deepest darkness save for one little light of the burning coal.

The fiery stone burned Jack's hands, so he got a potato, scraped the inside, and put the coal in it.

They say today, he still wanders through the darkness carrying that bit of burning coal.
In England, the children took large beets or turnips, known as mangel-wurzels, and hollowed them out. They carve a window so a lit candle inside can be seen. These are called punkies.

When the Irish people decided to come to America, they found our lovely pumpkins, and they decided they would be just right to hollow out, carve a face, and put in a candle. The Jack-O-Lantern, with its gruesome, sinister, or silly face, is said to help Jack find his way to another place to cause his mischief and not stop at the house with the Jack-O-Lantern.   No tricks and no treats for Stingy Jack.

A 247-pound pumpkin grown by the Stinson family

A huge Jack-O-Lantern. 247 POUNDS! Grown in Minnesota by  Joseph Charles Stinson. It is to help Charlie Brown find the Great Pumpkin Information for this blog from a book by Edna Barth titled Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts.