The Ghost Behind Your Jack-o’-Lantern: The Legend of Stingy Jack
Long before glowing pumpkins lined American porches, the lantern belonged to a ghost. His name was Jack, and according to an old Irish legend, neither Heaven nor Hell wanted him.
Today, a jack-o’-lantern might be silly, spooky or impressively elaborate. But the folklore behind that familiar glowing face is considerably darker. The tale of Stingy Jack involves the Devil, a series of tricks, a bargain that goes terribly wrong and a lonely spirit condemned to wander the darkness carrying a lantern.
Meet Stingy Jack
There are several versions of the legend, as you might expect from a folktale passed down for generations. In one of the best-known versions, Jack was a dishonest and miserly man who somehow found himself having a drink with the Devil.
True to his nickname, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink. Instead, he convinced the Devil to transform himself into a coin they could use to pay the bill.
That was the Devil's first mistake.
Rather than spending the coin, Jack slipped it into his pocket beside a silver cross. The cross prevented the Devil from returning to his original form, leaving Jack in the unusual position of having the Devil trapped in his pocket.
Jack eventually agreed to release him, but only after extracting a promise: the Devil wouldn't bother Jack for a year and, if Jack died, wouldn't claim his soul.
You would think Jack might have considered that encounter a victory and moved on.
He did not.
Jack Tricks the Devil Again
Jack encountered the Devil again the following year and somehow convinced him to climb a tree to pick a piece of fruit.
Once the Devil was in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the bark, trapping him again. This time, Jack reportedly demanded another promise before removing the cross: the Devil had to leave him alone for another ten years.
Jack had now managed to outwit the Devil twice. Unfortunately for Jack, he hadn't thought very carefully about what would happen next.
The Bargain Comes Due
Jack eventually died.
According to the legend, his unsavory life kept him from being admitted to Heaven. So Jack went to the other possible destination. But the Devil remembered their bargain.
He had promised not to claim Jack's soul, and he intended to keep his word. Jack wasn't getting into Hell either.
Instead, the Devil sent him back into the darkness with nothing but a burning coal to light his way. Jack hollowed out a turnip, placed the glowing coal inside and began wandering the earth with his makeshift lantern.
The ghost became known as Jack of the Lantern.
Eventually, the name became Jack O'Lantern.
And according to the story, Jack is still wandering.
Wait. A Turnip?
Here's the part of the story that tends to surprise Americans. The original jack-o'-lantern wasn't a pumpkin.
In Ireland and Scotland, people carved frightening faces into vegetables such as turnips. The lanterns were placed near doors and windows and became associated with frightening away Stingy Jack and other wandering spirits. The tradition of carved vegetable lanterns was established by the 19th century, although the Stingy Jack story itself exists in different versions.
And if you've ever seen an old-fashioned carved turnip lantern, you know something else - they are terrifying.
How Jack's Turnip Became Our Pumpkin
When immigrants from Ireland and other parts of Britain brought their Halloween traditions to North America, they encountered something much better suited to carving: the pumpkin.
Pumpkins were plentiful, considerably larger than turnips and—anyone who has ever attempted to hollow out a turnip will appreciate this—much easier to carve. Over time, the pumpkin became the American version of the jack-o'-lantern.
The vegetable changed. The glowing face remained. And somewhere underneath our modern tradition of pumpkin-carving contests, elaborate stencils and funny porch displays is an old story about a ghost carrying a tiny light through an endless night.
So What's Really Sitting on Your Porch?
Probably just a pumpkin.
Probably.
But folklore gives that glowing face beside the front door a much more interesting history. The jack-o'-lantern wasn't originally created simply to decorate for Halloween. It was connected to stories about wandering spirits and the idea that a frightening little lantern might help keep them away. The McClung Museum notes that the Irish tradition was specifically associated with warding off Stingy Jack.
So the next time you light a jack-o'-lantern, take another look at it before you close the door for the night.
More than a century before we started putting pumpkins on American porches, people were carving faces into vegetables and telling stories about a man who thought he had outsmarted the Devil. Maybe he did. But according to the legend, Jack has been paying for it ever since.
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