Carved pumpkins serve as a symbol of Halloween. The tradition comes from the Irish, who carved faces into turnips, gourds, and potatoes. There were no pumpkins in Ireland, but pumpkins had been grown in North America for five thousand years. The Celts believed that by carving scary faces into the vegetables and then lighting them and placing them near windows or doors, they would keep Stingy Jack (Jack of the Lantern) and other wandering evil spirits away. Stingy Jack is a mythical character from an Irish folktale associated with All Hallows Eve, who tricked the Devil, but was doomed to roam the earth without a resting place and only a glowing turnip to light his way. The vegetable lanterns were lit with stuffed coal, wood embers, or candles. In England, large beets were used for carving. Immigrants from these countries brought the carving tradition to America in the 1800s. They discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve, so they began to use pumpkins for jack-o-’lanterns. The term jack-o’-lantern originated in the 17thcentury and referred to a man with a lantern or a night watchman. By the end of the 19thcentury, carved pumpkins became a seasonal decoration for Halloween. My daughter likes to paint her pumpkins. Last year she painted IT and this year she painted the Joker.
A special thank you to: https://www.novareinna.com/festive/jack.html,https://www.history.com/news/history-of-the-jack-o-lantern-irish-origins,http://mentalfloss.com/article/12865/whats-origin-jack-o-lanterns,https://web.archive.org/web/20080327030417/http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=716&display_order=3&mini_id=1076
