So when Jack was dying for the third time, the devil refused to take his soul, and since Jack led a life of misery and cruelty, God wouldn’t take him either. Irish who moved to America found the pumpkin a great substitute for turnips. Both times, Jack was dying, and when the devil came for his soul, Jack tricked him into giving him several more years of life. He then turned his sights to a much more prominent target – the devil. “There were different versions, but basically they all agree that he was grumpy, possibly less than wholesome in his appetites and he was mean, stingy, but also kind of mischievous.”Īccording to Stack, Stingy Jack played tricks on his neighbors, family and friends. “The story is based on the story of a man called ‘Stingy Jack’ (pronounced “stin-jee jak”),” said Elizabeth Stack, the Executive Director of the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany, New York. While those words could be used to affectionately describe a few of our own family and friends, Irish legend has it they can also aptly describe the namesake of the jack-o’-lantern. With glowing, jagged eyes and a crooked smile, the jack-o’-lantern is one of the most recognizable faces of Halloween.īehind that face is a story - a story about ancient traditions and Irish American culture.Īs with any story involving culture, this one about the jack-o’-lantern is a bit complex, filled with as many knots and tangles as the stringy netting of seeds inside a pumpkin.īut before diving into those complexities, let’s first acquaint ourselves with the man, the myth and the Godforsaken namesake of the beloved Halloween icon: Jack. Not from a horror film: When insects turn into ‘zombies’ Your Halloween weather forecast from coast to ghost
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