Jack-o'-lantern
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For other uses, see Jack-o'-lantern (disambiguation).
A traditional jack-o'-lantern, made from a pumpkin, lit from within by acandle
A jack-o'-lantern in the shape of the Wikipedia logo
A jack-o'-lantern (or jack o'lantern) is a carved pumpkin, or turnip, associated chiefly with the holiday of Halloween and named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called will-o'-the-wisp or jack-o'-lantern. In a jack-o'-lantern, the top is cut off to form a lid and the inside flesh then scooped out; an image, usually a monstrous or comical face, is carved out of the pumpkin's rind to expose the hollow interior. To create the lantern effect, a light source (such as a candle or tea light) is placed within before the lid is closed. This is traditionally a flame or electric candle, though pumpkin lights featuring various colors and flickering effects are also marketed specifically for this purpose. It is common to see jack-o'-lanterns on doorsteps and otherwise used as decorations prior to and during Halloween.
An assortment of carved pumpkins
The term jack-o'-lantern is in origin a term for the visual phenomenon ignis fatuus (lit., "foolish fire") known as a will-o'-the-wisp in English folklore. Used especially in East England, its earliest known use dates to the 1660s.[1] The term "will-o'-the-wisp" uses "wisp" (a bundle of sticks or paper sometimes used as a torch) and the proper name "Will": thus, "Will-of-the-torch." The term jack-o'-lantern is of the same construction: "Jack of [the] lantern."
A traditional Irish Jack-o'-Lantern in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland
Modern carving of aCornish Jack-o'-Lantern made from a turnip
The origin of the custom of jack-o'-lantern carving is uncertain. The carving of vegetables has been a common practice in many parts of the world, with gourds being the earliest plant species domesticated by humans c. 10,000 years ago, primarily for their carving potential.[2] Gourds were used to carve lanterns by the Maori over 700 years ago,[3] with the Māori word for a gourd also used to describe a lampshade.[4] There is a common belief that the custom of carving jack-o'-lanterns at Hallowe'en originated in Ireland, where turnips, mangelwurzel or beets were supposedly used.[5][6]According to historian Ronald Hutton, in the 19th century, Hallowe'en guisers in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands commonly used jack-o'-lanterns made from turnips and mangelwurzels.[7]They were "often carved with grotesque faces to represent spirits or goblins".[7] In these areas, 31 October to 1 November was known as Samhain and it was seen as a time when spirits or fairies were particularly active. Hutton says that they were also used at Hallowe'en in Somerset (see Punkie Night) during the 19th century.[7] Christopher Hill also writes that "jack-o'-lanterns were carved out of turnips or squashes and were literally used as lanterns to guide guisers on All Hallows' Eve."[8] Some claim that the jack-o'-lanterns originated with All Saints' Day (1 November)/All Souls' Day (2 November) and represented Christian souls in purgatory.[9] Bettina Arnold writes that they were sometimes set on windowsills to keep the harmful spirits out of one's home.[10]
An 1834 account of a Halloween night at a house in Ireland makes no mention of any jack-o'-lantern or carved vegetables acting as lanterns,[11] However, the following year, the same publication carried a lengthy discourse of the legend of "Jack-o'-the-Lantern".[12] Robert Burns does not mention them in his famous poem "Halloween".[13] Thomas Johnson Westropp does not mention them in Folklore of Clare (1910)[14] and an "internationally accepted authority on Irish folk tradition", Seán Ó Súilleabháin, does not mention them in Irish Folk Custom and Belief (1967).[15]
There is, however. evidence that turnips were used to carve what was called a "Hoberdy's Lantern" in Worcestershire, England at the end of the 18th century. The folklorist Jabez Allies recalls how
In literature and popular culture[edit]
Adaptations of Washington Irving's 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" often depict the Headless Horseman with a pumpkin or jack-o'-lantern in place of his severed head. (In the original story, a shattered pumpkin is discovered next to Ichabod Crane's abandoned hat on the morning after Crane's supposed encounter with the Horseman.)
The application of the term to carved pumpkins in American English is first attested in 1834.[17] The carved pumpkin lantern association with Hallowe'en is recorded in 1866 in the U.S.:[18] 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.
James Fenimore Cooper wrote a nautical novel in 1842 called The Jack O'lantern (le Feu-Follet), Or the Privateer. "The Jack O'lantern" was the name of the ship.[19]
Agnes Carr Sage, "Halloween Sports and Customs," Harper's Young People, October 27, 1885, p. 828:
It is an ancient British custom to light great bonfires (Bone-fire to clear before Winter froze the ground) on Hallowe'en, and carry blazing fagots about on long poles; but in place of this, American boys delight in the funny grinning jack-o'-lanterns made of huge yellow pumpkins with a candle inside.
The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was born in Massachusetts in 1807, wrote "The Pumpkin" (1850):[20]
In the United States, the carved pumpkin was first associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Hallowe'en.[21] In 1900, an article on Thanksgiving entertaining recommended a lit jack-o'-lantern as part of the festivities.[21]
Cornish folklorist Dr. Thomas Quiller Couch (d. 1884) recorded the use of the term in a rhyme used in Polperro, Cornwall, in conjunction with Joan the Wad, the Cornish version of Will-o'-the-wisp. The people of Polperro regarded them both as pixies. The rhyme goes:[22]
Folklore[edit]
A commercial "R.I.P." pattern