On the Tradition of the Jack O'Lantern!

Jack O'Lantern, Jack O'Lantern, you are such a funny sight, as you sit there in the window, looking out at the night! Once you were a yellow pumpkin growing on a green vine,  now you are a Jack O'Lantern, see your candle light shine!

I wish I could sing this for you, so you could hear the tune. I love it!

Then there's this one: Five yellow pumpkins sitting on a gate; the first one said, "My, it's getting late!" The second one said, "There are witches in the air!" The third one said, "Well I don't care!" The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run;" the fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun" ...wooooo went the wind and out went the light! And the five yellow pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Halloween runs neck and neck with Christmas as my favorite holiday. This is aside from any religious significance to holidays such as Christmas and Easter. I'm talking pure, secular fun. When it comes to religious importance, yeah, Christmas and Easter are the biggies.

But for fun, fun, fun, it's Halloween and Christmas. Probably in that order.

Do you carve a Jack O'Lantern? My dad was the Jack O'Lantern King, and he passed his skill and knowledge on to his children. I, in turn, have passed it on to mine. And now Molly has taken over the reins of Chlovechok Jack O'Lantern Craft Queen. Here's her latest effort: (She went traditional this year.)

So have you heard the story of the origins of the Jack O'Lantern? It's a story that goes back hundreds of years to Ireland, to a stingy, mean, cruel man named Stingy Jack.
The story goes that Stingy Jack was so mean and nasty, he loved to play cruel tricks on just about everyone, even his own mother. Even on the Devil himself!
One day, Stingy Jack was walking down the road when he chanced to meet the Devil, who was out for a stroll. The Devil said, "Well, Stingy Jack, you're such a miserable example of a human, you're sure to be bound for Hell when you die . . . so I'll be looking forward to collecting your soul.
Now, Stingy Jack may have been mean and miserable, but he wasn't stupid. Thinking fast, he said, "Well, Devil, that's fine, but would you mind going up there and picking me a fine, red apple from that tree?"
The Devil said yes, and he climbed up the tree, limber as a mink.
Stingy Jack leaped to the tree and quickly put a circle of crosses around it. The Devil could not touch a cross or jump over one, so he was trapped in the tree.
"Let me down from here, Stingy Jack!" he cried.
"Not unless you promise never to take my soul to Hell!" Jack replied smugly.
Well, Old Nick was stumped, and finally agreed, reluctantly, to never take Stingy Jack's soul into Hell. And Jack removed the crosses and let the Devil down from the apple tree.
Eventually, Stingy Jack died, and happily made his way up to the Pearly Gates, where he was greeted by Saint Peter. Checking his list, Saint Peter frowned at Jack and said, "Jack, you're a stingy, miserable human being who's never done a kind thing for another person. You've lived a worthless life, and you can't come in here."
So Jack went on down to Hell, and banged on the gates. The Devil came to see who was knocking, and when he saw Jack, scowled. "What do you want, Stingy Jack?" he asked.
"They won't let me into Heaven, so I came here," Jack said.
The Devil threw back his head and laughed. "But Jack!" he said, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye. "I promised never to take your miserable soul into Hell. You can't come in."
Jack stared at the Devil. "But, where will I go?" he asked.
"Back to where you came from," the Devil said with a shrug.
"But it's dark in the Netherworld between here and there! How will I find my way!"
So, taking pity on him, the Devil tossed him a glowing ember straight from the fires of Hell. Stingy Jack took a turnip -- his favorite food, so he always carried a couple in his pickets -- hollowed it out and placed the ember inside. He cut a couple of holes so the light would shine out . . . and when he was done it looked like a face.
Using its light he found his way back to the place from which he'd come -- Ireland.
And that was the first Jack O'Lantern.
There were no pumpkins in Ireland, so the Irish took to carving turnips, gourds, even potatoes and placing candles inside, carving scary faces in them to keep the evil spirits away.
When Irish immigrants reached America they quickly discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to hollow out, and switched to using them to make their Jack O'Lanterns.
And THAT's where the Jack O'Lantern came from.