Some of us take them for granted, while others are obsessively devoted to pumpkin carving. Nowadays, jack-o’-lanterns are everywhere around Halloween. One of the first appearances on film, numerous iconic pumpkins would leave huge impressions on our collective Halloween imaginations in the decades that followed. Toad, also did a lot to cement the jack-o’-lantern in the cultural mind. The 1949 Disney cartoon, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. This solidified modern Halloween imagery and the jack-o’-lantern was central to that. Until the 1920s, all Halloween decorations and costumes were generally handmade, but that would all change when a Pennsylvania party goods company called Beistle released the first line of mass-produced Halloween decorations.

Picture the sight of numerous glowing pumpkins bouncing around in the autumn night. In the early 1900s, kids started carrying around what were called “ parade lanterns.” These small metal jack-o’-lanterns held a candle and were held during a Halloween parade or while trick-or-treating. By the late 1800s, the origin of the jack-o’-lantern began to transition toward the Halloween decoration we think of today. In 1892, the Mayor of Atlanta’s wife hosted a Halloween party and had several pumpkins carved into jack-o’-lanterns with illuminated candles. These pumpkin lanterns would soon share his name–jack-o’-lanterns. These pranks sometimes involved hiding in the woods or on the side of the road in an attempt to scare passersby into believing they had seen Stingy Jack. 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. But there is more to this story than a quickly summarized history.

Light up evil jack o lantern