Pumpkins and Jack-o’-lanterns
This page offers a brief history, from a Christian perspective, of pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns as Halloween symbols, images, and traditions.
NOTE: This information is drawn from a Rose Publishing pamphlet, Christian Origins of Halloween. The content has a copyright © 2012.
In the British Isles, the term jack-o-lantern originally referred to a night watchman or a man with a lantern. It was also used to describe the phenomenon of strange light flickering over swamps or bogs that had the appearance of a person carrying a lantern. Scientists call this ignis fatuus or “fool’s fire”— possibly a spontaneous combustion of gas produced by decaying matter. For centuries, people believed these to be “souls of the dead, wandering interminably and leading men astray.” 1
The first known use of the term jack-o-lantern to refer to a carved vegetable lantern was in 1837 America. Noted author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the following in his short story “The Great Carbuncle”:
“Hide it [the great carbuncle] under they cloak, say’st thou? Why, it will gleam through the holes, and make thee look like a jack-o’-lantern.”2
The tradition of carving lanterns probably came from the British Isles where there was a long tradition of using turnips, beets and other vegetables for this purpose. These immigrants to North America would have found the large, native pumpkin especially well suited for carving.
While people in the British Isles likely used their carved lanterns for “souling” (see our Costumes and Trick-or-Treating page to better under the custom of “souling”) and other outdoor activities in the fall, there does not appear to have been any particular association with Halloween. This connection seems to have developed in North America and was first recorded in an 1886 Canadian newspaper:
“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.”3
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You may freely use this content if you cite the source and/or link back to this page. This content is drawn from Christian Origins of Halloween by Angie Mosteller. It has a copyright © 2012 by Rose Publishing Inc.
Sources:
1 Bannatyne, p. 67.
2 Found in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice Told Tales, 1837.
3 Found in Daily News, Kingston, Ontario, November 1, 1866.
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