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The word Jack O Lantern was 1st used to
describe a mysterious light seen at night flickering over marshes. When
approached, it advances, always out of reach. The phenomenon is also
known as will o the wisp and ignis fatuus (foolish fire).
In pop legend it is considered ominous and is often thought to be the
soul of one who has been rejected by hell carrying its own hell coal on
its wanderings.
In Ireland, where Halloween began, the first
jack-o'-lanterns weren't made of pumpkins. They were made out of rutabagas,
potatoes, turnips, or even beets! There is an old Irish legend about a man named
Stingy Jack who was too mean to get into heaven and had played too many tricks
on the devil to go to hell. When he died, he had to walk the earth, carrying a
lantern made out of a turnip with a burning coal inside. Stingy Jack became
known as "Jack of the Lantern," or "Jack-o'-Lantern."
From this legend came the Irish tradition of placing jack-o'-lanterns
made of turnips and other vegetables in windows or by doors on Halloween. The
jack-o'-lanterns are meant to scare away Stingy Jack and all the other spirits
that are said to walk the earth on that night. It wasn't until the tradition was
brought to the United States by immigrants that pumpkins were used for
jack-o'-lanterns.
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