Halloween 2019: The Tale of Stingy Jack and his Jack O' Lantern

Halloween's most popular Jack O'Lantern is a pumpkin with ghoulish face with illuminated candles. The story of Jack O'Lantern has many versions. The most popular story dates back to an old town in Ireland. This is how the story goes - which is meant to be just folklore.

The Tale of Stingy Jack and the Jack O' Lantern

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Jack was a Stingy miserable person who used to drink a lot. He took immense pleasure in playing tricks on everyone just for amusement. A day came when he tricked the Devil himself hence the term ‘Trick or Treat’. He tricked the devil into climbing up an apple tree. After the Devil climbed up the tree, Jack quickly placed a few crosses around the trunk of the tree. The devil was unable to touch a cross and thus remained stuck on top of the tree. Jack cunningly made the Devil promise him to not to take his soul in case of his death. The devil agreed and Jack took out the crosses and the devil climbed down the tree.

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Years passed and Jack died, he was taken to the gates of Heaven. Saint Peter being the gatekeeper of Heaven testified that he had been mean and cruel, and had led quite a miserable life in his time on earth. Thus Jack was not allowed to enter past the gates of heaven. He was then released down to the depths of hell and thus to the devil. However, the Devil was all sorts of evil but since he had promised Jack not to let him enter hell, he stuck to his word. This scared Jack as he had no place to go. Jack had nowhere to go and no place to be, he was thereby forced to wander forever in the dark depths of the Netherworld between heaven and hell. He begged the Devil to help him find a way out.

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The Devil accepted and tossed him an ember from the fire of Hell, to help Jack light his way through the dark. Jack carried a Turnip with him. This was jack’s favourite food and he always carried it with him. Jack quickly hollowed out the Turnip and placed the ember inside it. It was from this day on Jack roamed the earth without a proper resting place. While he roamed he lit his path with his "Jack O'Lantern".

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It is believed to keep Jack away on Hallows eve people fill turnips and various items with illuminating light. This was later replaced with pumpkins as they were easy to carve. These became the original Jack O'Lanterns. In the 1800s Irish immigrants came to America and this trend caught on.