🎃 Where the name “Jack-o’-lantern” comes from

🎃 Where the name “Jack-o’-lantern” comes from

🎃 Where the name “Jack-o’-lantern” comes from

The phrase is basically an old-fashioned way of saying “Jack of the lantern” — a man named Jack carrying a light.

In Britain, by around the 1600s, “Jack-o’-lantern” was also used for mysterious lights people sometimes saw over marshes and bogs. Today we know these phenomena as will-o’-the-wisps, but folklore gave them supernatural explanations.

Then there is the famous Irish folk story of “Stingy Jack.”

According to the legend, Jack was a dishonest, troublesome man who repeatedly tricked the Devil. When Jack eventually died, he couldn't enter Heaven, while the Devil—because of his dealings with Jack—wouldn't take him into Hell either.

So Jack was supposedly condemned to wander the Earth in darkness.

The Devil gave him a burning coal, and Jack placed it inside a hollowed-out turnip to use as a lantern.

Thus he became “Jack of the Lantern” → “Jack-o’-lantern.”

🥔 It wasn't originally a pumpkin

This is one of the coolest parts of the history.

In Ireland and parts of Britain, people traditionally carved turnips, rutabagas/swede, beets, and other root vegetables, sometimes making frightening faces in them and putting lights inside.

These traditions became associated with Samhain, the old Gaelic festival marking the transition into winter. Samhain was associated in folklore with a time when the boundary between the human and supernatural worlds was especially active.

Later, Christian observances such as All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2) became intertwined with older seasonal customs. The evening before All Saints' Day became All Hallows' Eve → Halloween.

🇺🇸 So why do Americans carve pumpkins?

People carved turnips, rutabagas, beets, and other root vegetables mainly because of old beliefs about spirits, the dead, and protection during the dark winter season.

The custom is especially connected with Ireland and parts of Britain around Samhain, the Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter.

People believed this was a time when spirits or supernatural beings could come closer to the human world. Customs varied by place and period, so there wasn't one single reason everyone carved vegetables.

One important tradition was making lanterns from vegetables. A turnip or similar root vegetable could be hollowed out, a face carved into it, and a candle or ember placed inside. The frightening face could represent a spirit or supernatural figure, and in later folklore such lanterns were sometimes understood as a way of frightening away unwanted spirits.

There was also a very practical reason for using turnips rather than pumpkins: turnips and rutabagas were common crops in Ireland and Britain. Pumpkins were native to the Americas and weren't the traditional carving vegetable there.

And those old turnip lanterns were considerably creepier than today's friendly pumpkins. 😄 A small, pale turnip with a roughly carved human face and candlelight coming through it could look almost like a glowing skull.

The famous Stingy Jack story was later associated with these lantern traditions. Jack supposedly wandered the earth carrying a burning coal inside a hollowed-out turnip—one explanation folklore gives for the name “Jack-o’-lantern.”

So a useful way to think about the evolution is:

Samhain & winter folklore → spirits and the dead → carved vegetable lanterns → frightening faces → Jack-o’-lantern folklore → Irish/British traditions reach America → pumpkins replace turnips → 🎃 modern Halloween

One caution, though: historians don't have evidence that every carved turnip was specifically made to “scare away evil spirits.” That's a popular simplification. The historical customs involved a mixture of seasonal celebrations, lantern-making, pranks, representations of spirits, Christian observances, and local folklore, which eventually blended into the Halloween tradition we recognize today.

Why Halloween day is on Oct 31th?

The date makes sense once you know what the word Halloween means.

Halloween = “All Hallows’ Eve.”
“Hallow” is an old word meaning saint or holy person, and “eve” means the evening before.

In the Christian calendar, November 1 is All Saints’ Day (All Hallows’ Day). Therefore, the evening before it—October 31—became All Hallows’ Eve, eventually shortened to Halloween.

But there's an older layer to the story. The Gaelic festival Samhain was traditionally associated with the transition from the harvest season into winter, around October 31–November 1. In Gaelic tradition, the day was reckoned from evening to evening, so celebrations could begin after sunset.

Over centuries, customs associated with Samhain, medieval Christian observances surrounding All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, and later folk traditions became intertwined.

So the calendar looks roughly like this:

October 31 🌙 — All Hallows’ Eve → Halloween 🎃
November 1 ✝️ — All Saints’ Day
November 2 🕯️ — All Souls’ Day

That is also why Halloween has so much imagery involving ghosts, graves, spirits, skeletons, candles, and death: several different traditions concerning the dead and the supernatural accumulated around this period of the year.



Back to blog