The topic of Jack O Lanterns came up for corset today while standing in line at the grocery. I hadn't bothered with a basket and had a pumpkin in each arm, the largest I could find in the bins, and they were getting heavy. So the woman in front of me moved her things up a bit since there was a stall so I could set down the pumkins. Well we got to talking. Were they for eating or for carving? Well in a sense both but that isn't the point today.
I told her I wanted to carve them and my SO had told me he would help so I bought two and she commented off hand, she wondered why they were called Jack O Lanterns and why Halloween. Well if I'm not mistaken, pumpkin carving at halloween is fairly new as far as History goes, I believe it was around the 1860's. However people have been carving pumpkins and turnips to put lights in them since about the mid 1600's. It was originally turnips too. Fun right?
Now let's get back to Halloween. We will start with fact then move on to fun. Back in the day, in the British Isles the pumpkins were carved and lit to be placed on door steps to ward off evil spirts. The families would also traditionally leave a treat at the door to appease spirits so there would be no tricks that night. Two birds one stone. Trick or Treating and Pumpkins all in one go. Of course both are more complicated so lets not loose sight of the point. Besides it wasn't until the 1830's that these carved veggies became jack o lanterns anyway.
But lets have a bit of fun. There is a legend roaming around that goes something like this:
Once upon a time was a boy named Jack who had been stealing from the villagers. Well one day they came to get him to punish him for his crimes. Fleeing the town he ran into the devil in the road who told him it was his time to die. So the boy bargained with the devil. Turn into a coin so he could pay the villigers for his theft with it. Then the devil could disappear and have them guessing over who stole the coin. The devil saw many sins being committed in this way so he agreed and turned into a coin int he boys pocket. However the boy also had a cross in his pocket which removed the devils powers from him. Jack kept the devil until he swore he would never take his soul. Well the boy grew old over time and committed many wicked acts so when he died he was barred from heaven. However due to his deal he was barred from hell as well. Having no where to go, the boy carved out a turnip as they had been his favorite in life and crawled inside. The devil taking great pleasure in his loneliness threw him an ember from hell and the boy forever roamed the earth looking for a place to stay. He became known as the Jack of Lanterns.
Of course now days it's just not faces you see carved into your veggies. It can be celebrities and comics, to politicians and creatures of the night. A lot of places even sell stencils to help you bring your creation to life. So in spirit of a messy afternoon take up a gourd like veggie be it pumpkins or turnips and carve away! Let's see how things turn out? I know my pumpkins will be warding away evil tricks of the night. As will the bucket of candy.
Corset loving the fall season.
Signing off.
No comments:
Post a Comment