In the 1840s, the Irish Potato Famine brought waves of Irish immigrants to America who brought their beliefs and practices with them.īy the mid-1800s, there was a tradition of American children carving faces into pumpkins, lighting them, and using them for pranks. The first mention of a jack-o’-lantern in America comes with the publication of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice Told Tales, published in 1837. Though there is no clear connection, you can also imagine why the sight of glowing pumpkins in America might have reminded Irish immigrants of their native folklore. You can imagine why an otherworldly flaming glow coming from deep within a marsh would make people think of Stingy Jack carrying his glowing turnip, walking in an endless silence. This name was also given to phosphorescent swamp gas. Any unknown person carrying a lantern was referred to as “jack o’ the lantern” in reference to the story. The rural Irish started telling a folktale in the 1500s about a man named Stingy Jack who tricked the devil and was forced to walk the earth for eternity, carrying only an ember in a turnip. Where does the phrase “jack-o’-lantern” come from? To fully understand the jack-o’-lantern, you’ll want to understand the term’s origin. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.But there is more to this story than a quickly summarized history. So as you dress up or hand out candy to thwart the tricksters at your door, keep in mind that these traditions are great examples of how we’re connected in ways that may not be readily apparent.įor more on the history of Halloween as it related to the Gaelic festival of Samhain, see this older post from Anthropology in Practice. But bonfires would attract mosquitoes, which in turn would attract bats, which also became a popular Halloween decoration. ![]() Bonfires were a big part of the Samhain celebrations.The practice of telling these predictions gives us the precursor for telling ghost stories on this haunted night. Or they would stand in front of a darkened mirror with a candle in the hopes of seeing their future husband’s face. For example, young women would toss apple peels over their shoulder in the hopes of seeing the initial of their future husband’s name in the fallen peel. There are several Halloween games that allow you to predict your romantic future which are played today. Halloween night is an optimal time for divination.The practice of costuming and the tradition of tricks on Halloween night is meant confuse these spirits. Ireland is littered with fairy mounds, and the Irish believed that fairies would emerge from their mounds on this night. Halloween night is a time when spirits supposedly walk about and play tricks on people.The Irish originally carved turnips to frighten away "Stingy Jack," who made an ill-fated deal with the devil and was forced to wander the world with a lump of coal in a turnip to light his way, which people called "jack-o-lanterns." Turnips were harder to come by in America, but pumpkins were available and easy to carve-and the name stuck. ![]() The Halloween celebrations that we are most familiar with gained ground in the mid to late nineteenth-century with the influx of Irish immigrants. These early celebrations often mixed with the harvest festivals of the American Indians to generate a unique blend of Halloween seasonal festivities. ![]() While southern colonies were more likely to mark some sort of Halloween celebration than the more Protestant-based New England colonies, overall settlers thought the celebrations were too pagan and too Catholic, drawing from the holiday's heritage in Samhain and later All Saints Day. Halloween in the American colonies was a scant affair. But did you know there’s a strong Irish influence on the traditions that surround our favorite costumed holiday? Patrick’s Day, everyone claims to be a little Irish.
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