The Weird Story of the First JackO' Lantern

As I write this it's September and Halloween is still about two months away, but to many of us, anytime is a good time for a tale about one of our favorite holidays.  With that in mind here's a folk story about the 

Origin of “Jack O’Lanterns.”

As of September 8, 2017

The tradition of cutting faces into pumpkins originated in America, probably around Boston or New York.  Actually the first carving was in Ireland, but it was a large turnip, not a pumpkin that was hollowed out, had a face cut into it, and was supplied with a candle to give it a scary glow.

According to the legend a mean, disorderly fellow, named Jack who lived in a shack in Dublin, loved to play tricks on unsuspecting people.  His foul antics affected everyone from his own family to the town’s upper class.

He took great delight in tripping old ladies, suspending wires across pathways to injure human and horse alike, and tying a thread around a gold piece that he tossed on the ground and then snatching it away from a person who spotted it and went to pick it up. 

Though a rogue and a no-good, mean Jack was very skilled in the art of doing bad things and always managed to escape harm from his foul tricks, even when he pulled one on the Devil himself!

By means of his extraordinary cunning he managed to convince Satan to climb up a full grown apple tree.  When the Lord of Hell was halfway up, nimble Jack tacked crosses all around the trunk of the tree.

“I can’t get down,” moaned the Devil. “I’ll suffer eternally if I even so much as brush across one of those terrible crosses. Take them away Jack,” begged old Satan.

“I might remove those crosses for you if you are in a bargaining mood.”

“Name your price you scallywag.”  

Jack smiled and thrust out his chest, puffing himself up as big as he could get and told the Devil…..

“The price for me to do it is merely one soul – my own.  You must promise me that when I die you will not claim my soul.”

“Take away those dreaded crosses and it’s done.  I shall never lay claim your dark soul, no matter what.”

Keeping his end of the bargain, Jack removed the crosses and the Devil climbed down the apple tree and went to Hell, while Jack went to the pub to celebrate his big victory over the Lord of Darkness.

About 20 years later after a life of deceit and drunken debauchery Jack died and applied for a small apartment in Heaven.  At the Pearly Gates, St. Pete took one look at the old reprobate and said “Not a chance. No way! There’s no place for the likes of you in Heaven Jack.  Go to Hell!”

So Jack did.  He knocked on the door of the gates to the inferno and was met by Satan himself who demanded to know…

“What the Hell do you want Jack?”

“I’d like a little spot in Hell.  It doesn’t have to be very big.  Really, even a little closet will do.”

“We made a bargain Jack.  I promised that I would never claim your soul no matter what.  I’m keeping my end of the deal.  Get lost Jack!”

“Yes, it’s lost I’ll be,” said the miserable old sinner, "for now I’m stuck forever in the dark netherworld between Heaven and Hell and I can’t even see where I’m wandering.”

“I’ll do one thing for you Jack. Here….” said the Devil as he tossed him a flaming ember from the furnace of Hell. “That ember will glow forever and guide you on your endless walk between the gates of Heaven and Hell.”

Jack had a turnip with him, a plentiful and favored food in Ireland at the time.  It was a large turnip and Jack felt that it would make a good holder for his flaming ember which was too hot to hold in his hand.

Jack hollowed out the turnip and cut holes in the side.  When he placed the ember in it, the light shined through the holes and lit the way for him in his perpetual walk. 

From that day forward, the last thing new souls arriving at the Gates of Heaven and Hell see before being admitted to one place or the other is mean spirited Jack carrying his brightly lit “Jack O’Lantern”.

And so it was that during the first great waves of immigration, the Irish brought the tradition of turnip carving to America – though once they got here and discovered pumpkins, they stopped using turnips because pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve. 

Happy Halloween