With glowing, jagged eyes and a crooked smile, the jack-o’-lantern is one of the most recognizable faces of Halloween.
As with any story involving culture, this one aboutis a bit complex, filled with as many knots and tangles as the stringy netting of seeds inside a pumpkin.
According to Stack, Stingy Jack played tricks on his neighbors, family and friends. He then turned his sights to a much more prominent target – the devil. “So if you’re out at night, late at night, and you see a creepy light on the horizon, it could be the jack-o’-lantern out walking, stuck between the two worlds,” Stack said. According to Stack, people in Ireland began to create their own jack-o’-lanterns as far back as around the 17th century.
But unlike the spooky-yet-cute jack-o’-lanterns we’re familiar with today, the earliest jack-o’-lanterns appeared quite macabre. With crudely-cut eyes and mouths, their faces seemed fully capable of truly frightening both the living and the dead.Focusing on the dead, specifically during fall, is part of an age-old tradition in Irish culture. In fact, this focus and that of Halloween can be traced back to the very first people of Ireland.
“The ancient Irish believed that this was the night where the souls could kind of rise again,” Stack said. “So if there was any unfinished business, they could come back.”