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Forget pumpkins and go back to our terrifying roots with Irish turnip 'Jack-o-Lanterns'

(GIF: Tumblr) With October’s autumnal grip tightening around our ever-decreasing hours of ...
Newstalk
Newstalk

12.11 13 Oct 2014


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Forget pumpkins and go back to...

Forget pumpkins and go back to our terrifying roots with Irish turnip 'Jack-o-Lanterns'

Newstalk
Newstalk

12.11 13 Oct 2014


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(GIF: Tumblr)

With October’s autumnal grip tightening around our ever-decreasing hours of daylight, thoughts turn to Halloween.

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Perhaps you’ve already decided what costume you’ll be wearing – will it be an ironic or sexed-up nod to popular culture, or something with a little bit more bite to it. Maybe you’ve even given some thought to carving up a pumpkin and making a Jack-o-Lantern, all while sipping on a pumpkin-spiced latte in a nod to our American cousins' love of the orange spooky staple?

The cherished tradition of the gently glowing candle-lit vegetable is fast becoming a mainstay of how we Irish do Halloween, but for purists out there, you’ll need to get your hands on a turnip.

IrishCentral recently reported on how Jack-O-Lanterns are 100% Irish, and 100% terrifying – a creepy turnip-faced monstrosity carved up to scare away demons.

Here’s how the story goes…

According to Irish folklore, a man called Jack O’Lantern was sentenced to roam the earth for eternity. A ghostly figure of the night, O’Lantern walks with a burning coal inside of a carved-out turnip to light his way.

As the tale goes, a man called Stingy Jack invited the devil for a drink and convinced him to shape-shift into a coin to pay with. When the devil obliged, Jack decided he wanted the coin for other purposes, and kept it in his pocket beside a small, silver cross to prevent it from turning back into the devil.

Jack eventually freed the devil under the condition that he wouldn’t bother Jack for one year, and wouldn’t claim Jack’s soul once he died. The next year, Jack tricked the devil once more by convincing him to climb up a tree to fetch a piece of fruit. When he was up in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the trunk so the devil couldn’t come down until he swore he wouldn’t bother Stingy Jack for another ten years.

When Jack died, God wouldn’t allow him into heaven and the devil wouldn’t allow him into hell. He was instead sent into the eternal night, with a burning coal inside a carved-out turnip to light his way. He’s been roaming the earth ever since. The Irish began to refer to this spooky figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” which then became “Jack O’Lantern.”

A traditional Irish Jack O'Lantern in Mayo's Museum of Irish Country Life (Image: Wikipedia Commons)

The lanterns then became a mainstay of the pagan Samhain festival (Oct 31 – Nov 1), the night when the divide between the living and the dead is at its narrowest, and when the harvest season gives way to the cold and dark days of winter.

IrishCentral reports that the waves of Irish emigration to the US probably brought the Jack-o-Lantern to America, where the availability of pumpkins led to the ones we know today.

So this Halloween, if you want to keep it family friendly, pumpkins are the way to go.

But if you want to terrify, turn a turnip into Gourd Voldemort and let the spooky spectre of Samhain hang in the air…


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