What Is It?

Do you know why carved Halloween pumpkins are usually scary faces? Why they are called jack-o-lanterns? This week's mystery asks and answers at the same time. Staff photo by Neil Abeles
Do you know why carved Halloween pumpkins are usually scary faces? Why they are called jack-o-lanterns? This week's mystery asks and answers at the same time. Staff photo by Neil Abeles

This week's mystery picture is a teaching lesson. Do you know why carved Halloween pumpkins are usually scary faces? Why they are called jack-o-lanterns?

Here's the answer, all in one Where Is It? mystery for this week.

Halloween jack-o-lanterns have been around for centuries. Their ghoulish face originated in Ireland. Here's the legend:

It seems a man named "Stingy Jack" invited the devil to have a drink with him. Being stingy, Jack wouldn't pay, so he convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the devil did so, Jack put the coin into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the devil from changing back to his original form.

Jack eventually freed the devil under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and could not claim Jack's soul should Jack die.

The next year, Jack again tricked the devil into climbing a tree to pick some fruit. While he was up the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark, so the devil could not come down. Jack got the devil to promise he would not bother him for 10 more years.

Soon after, Jack died. The legend continues that God would not allow the unsavory fellow Jack into heaven. The devil, having been so badly tricked, would not allow Jack into Hell.

And so Jack went off in the night by putting a burning coal into a carved-out turnip to light his way. He's been roaming ever since.

Some people have thought they've seen Jack's light glowing in peat bogs at night. But they do not want Jack near and so have carved scary faces on pumpkins to put in doors and windows to keep Jack away. He's been known ever since as "Jack with the lantern."

The lanterns also frighten away other wandering spirits.But today, if you look around at jack-o-lanterns, you'll find that most are smiling.

Maybe Jack has tricked the devil again.

What Is It? is written by Neil Abeles for the Texarkana Gazette.

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