Fall is here and it’s time for haunted houses, corn mazes and hay rides. It’s also a great time to head out for a drive and pick up a pumpkin to carve for Halloween.
Here’s a brief history of the jack-o’-lantern from pumpkinpatchesandmore.com, a comprehensive guide to North State pumpkin patches and farms:
If you are not from the British Isles, you won’t believe where your hollowed out pumpkin comes from! In Ireland and Scotland hollowed-out turnips with embers or candles inside became a very popular Halloween decoration a few hundred years ago. Baldrick would have met his dream! (Fans of “Blackadder” will recognize this!) The English used beets (which they call “beetroots”). Talk about doing things the hard way!
Tradition held that they would ward off Stingy Jack and other malevolent spirits on Halloween, and they also served as representations of the souls of the dead. Irish families who emigrated to America brought the tradition with them, but they replaced the turnips with pumpkins, which, native to the new world, were plentiful. It didn’t hurt that they are a lot easier to carve than turnips. Have you ever tried to hollow out a turnip?
People began to carve frightening faces and other designs into their jack-o’-lanterns. The practice of carving turnips began with an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack,” a famous cheapskate who, on several occasions, avoided losing his soul to the devil by tricking him (often on All Hallows’ Eve). In one story, he convinced Satan to climb up a tree for some apples, and then cut crosses all around the trunk so the devil couldn’t climb down. The devil promised to leave Jack alone forever, if he would only let him out of the tree. In another story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. Of course, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin so that Jack could pay for their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money! He put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the devil, again with the same promise not to take his soul.
When Jack eventually died, he was turned away from Heaven, due to his life of sin. But, in keeping with their agreement, the Devil wouldn’t take Jack, either. He was cursed to travel forever as a spirit in limbo. As Jack left the gates of Hell, the Devil threw him a hot ember to light the way in the dark. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed-out turnip, and wandered off into the world. According to the Irish legend, you might see Jack’s spirit on All Hallows’ Eve, still carrying his turnip lantern through the darkness. The Irish began to refer to this eerie figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, just “Jack O’Lantern.”
In addition to the directory of pumpkin patches, pumpkinpatchesandmore.com offers tips and tricks for carving and preserving a jack ‘o lantern, the history of Halloween and an interesting look at Halloween as it’s celebrated around the world.
So, get outta town this weekend and hang out in a hay maze, hitch a ride on a tractor pulling hay, have a picnic and pick the perfect pumpkin.
To learn more about North State pumpkin patches at pumpkinpatchesandmore.com. If pumpkins aren’t your thing, visit the following sites for information about events in eleven North State counties:
Click here for Butte County events.
Click here for Del Norte County events.
Click here for Glenn County Events.
Click here for Humboldt County events.
Click here for Lassen County events.
Click here for Modoc County events.
Click here for Plumas County events.
Click here for Shasta County events.
Click here for Siskiyou County events.
Click here for Tehama County events.
Click here for more Trinity County events.
Adam Mankoski is a recent North State transplant who feels completely at home here. He enjoys experiencing and writing about the people, places and things that embody the free spirit of the State of Jefferson. He and his partner own HawkMan Studios and are the creators of Redding’s 2nd Saturday ArtHop. Email your NorthState weekend events to adamm.anewscafe@gmail.com.
This portrait of Adam Mankoski was created by Shasta High School students Chance Norman and Kenzi Bell.
A News Cafe, founded in Shasta County by Redding, CA journalist Doni Greenberg, is the place for people craving local Northern California news, commentary, food, arts and entertainment.
