History of Pumpkins, Jack O’Lanterns & Halloween

 Before it was Halloween, October 31 was the Pagan holiday of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), the official end of summer and the harvest sea son. Ancient Celts believed that at Samhain, the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was extremely thin, allowing the dead to cross over into the world of the living. Some times they appeared as apparitions and some times in the form of animals, most particularly black cats. The living lit bon -fires and dressed in costumes to confuse the spirits and keep them from re- entering the world.  When Christianity came to Ire land and Scotland, it simply co-opted the three day festival of Samhain and folded it into All Hallows Eve, (October 31 ), All Saints Day ( November 1 ) and All Souls day. ( November 2 ) It was a perfect fit and the original Pagan Samhain blended seamlessly into the new Christian celebration. In most of Christian Europe, the emphasis ‚was and still is, on All Saints Day, but in Ire land and Scot land, because of the Celtic past and the legacy of Samhain, All Hal lows Eve, or Halloween became the big deal and various local traditions developed.

 In Ireland children carved out potatoes or turnips as “Jack-O- Lanterns” and lighted them from the inside with candles. The prac­tice originated from an Irish myth about a man nick­named “Stingy Jack” who invited the Devil to have a drink with him and then didn’t want to pay for his drink. It’s a long story, but the bottom line is that Jack tricked the Devil into climbing up a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While the devil was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the he could not come down until he promised not to bother Jack for ten more years. Soon there­after, Jack died and God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. So Jack was con­ demned to wander the earth between heaven and hell with only a burning piece of coal in a carved out turnip to light his way.  References to pumpkins date back many centuries. The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for “large melon” which is “pepon.” “Pepon” was changed by the French into “pompon.” The English changed “pompon” to “Pumpion.” Shakespeare referred to the “pumpion” in his Merry Wives of Windsor. American colonists changed “pumpion” into “pumpkin.” The “pumpkin” is referred to in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater and Cinderella.

 Native Americans dried strips of pumpkin and wove them into mats. They also roas­ted long strips of pump­kin on the open fire and ate them. The ori­gin of pump­kin pie occurred when the colonists sliced off the pumpkin top, removed the seeds, and filled the insides with milk, spices and honey. The pumpkin was then baked in hot ashes.  It’s a story that came to America with hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants in the mid nine­teenth century. In America, pumpkins were cheaper and more read­ily avail­able than turnips, but carving them and mak­ing them in to Jack-O-Lanterns lit by a candle inside became an Amer­ican tra­di­tion as Hal­loween was enthu­si­ast­ic­ally adop­ted in the New World by people from every pos­sible eth­nic back­ground. By the 1880’s it had really caught on and had become part of the tapestry of American holiday traditions. Today, most think of Hal­loween as an Amer­ican holiday and are unaware of the ancient old world roots of the carved pumpkins that are a tra­ditional part of the cel­eb­ra­tion. So now you know why we carve pumpkins at Halloween. It’s all because of the ancient Celts, pagans and Irish descendants who came to America. Pagans today still  celebrate Samhain. If you are inter­ested in learning more about Samhain, this is a good source of information: pa gans.com/ h o l i d a y / S a m h a i n. h tmlhttp:// pa gans.com/ h o l i d a y / S a m h a i n. h tml

 1. You will carve one side of a pumpkin that you will share with another student. It must be a face of an animal or human (if it is a spider it can be the body as well.  Rubric: Pumpkin carving project  Sloppy work, rushed through it, points  Did students follow directions as far as cooperating and each carving one side taking turns and helping each other?  Does the carving show depth   Composition is sloppy and not thought through points  Were many errors made in the carving?   Is the face different and not traditional as requested?  Was the gourd preserved well with chlorine as instructed. 

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