“Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve.” — Ray Bradbury
This is a story about Jack… Stingy Jack that is.
He was known to be a miserable soul. He didn’t have any friends, with good reason.
A farmer, Jack was lazy, drunk most of the time, and took great pleasure in playing tricks on those around him, even his mother. Being stingy and a trickster was not his only fault. He was shrewd, very shrewd. He tried to trick the Devil himself. Jack came out the loser, as you’ll soon learn.
The Jack O’Lantern fable
It’s told that, one day, Jack prudently coerced the Devil into climbing an apple tree in his orchard. Once the Devil climbed up, Jack quickly placed his prepared crosses around the trunk of the tree. The Devil was then unable to climb down.
Knowing that he had the Devil exactly where he wanted him, Stingy Jack made a proposition with him. He would remove the crosses and allow the Devil down if his soul was not taken to the underworld when he died. The Devil promised. Confident he had succeeded in his crafty ways and confident in seeing the Pearly Gates, Jack continued on with his miserable ways until his death years later.
Reaching the Pearly Gates, Jack found disappointment. He was too cruel and miserable – he had led a worthless life on earth, according to Saint Peter. He was not welcome in Heaven. So, he went down to Hell for his meeting with the Devil, who remembered his promise to Jack. But Jack couldn’t enter Hell either.
This left Jack with no choice but to wander around aimlessly, fearful in the darkness between Heaven and Hell. Asking the Devil how he could stay with no light to guide him, the Devil tossed Jack an ember from the flames of Hell. Jack was placed into a hollowed out turnip, his favourite food that he always carried with him. Still today, Stingy Jack continues to roam without a resting place, lighting his own way with his Jack O’Lantern.
Carving out the vegetables
This fable has a number of variations, all with the intent of explaining the term Jack O’Lantern, or its earlier version of Jack of the Lantern. Today, Jack O’Lanterns are carved out into lighted pumpkins on Halloween, which probably first got their name from the mysterious lights flickering over marshes in Ireland. This phenomenon also known as “will o the wisp,” or ignis fatuus, was thought to be those souls rejected by Hell, lighting their own way, much like Jack.
It wasn’t until 1837 that the term Jack O’Lantern was used for carved-out vegetables, and not until 1866 that it was affiliated with Halloween. Earliest carved out vegetables included gourds, beet, and potatoes. Apparently, with the 1800s and the first wave of Irish immigrants to America, they found that pumpkins were easier to carve out because of their size. A carved pumpkin was associated with the harvest season in the United States long before its use as an icon for Halloween.
In October 2022, a man from Anoka, Minnesota grew the biggest pumpkin and set a U.S. record for the heaviest pumpkin. It weighed 2,560 pounds. Unbelievable! A horticulture teacher, Travis Gienger, grew his huge pumpkin at home and then drove it to Northern California for the annual pumpkin-weighing contest. It was a winner!
Now, Stingy Jack could have used that one!