Quote:
Originally Posted by orlok
Well Samhain is Gaelic, so was it Ireland? Don't know what they carved - maybe very large potatoes?  |
Orlok got the country correct, so I'll pas the honor of the next quiz over to him (or her).
The Irish had a custom of carving faces into turnips and placing a burning ember inside to help light their way at night. There is an old legend about an Irishman named Jack who was a cute hoor (a rogue and scam artist), and this Jack tricked the Devil into not accepting his soul into hell. When Jack died God wouldn't let him into heaven, and sent him to hell. However, the Devil honored his word and wouldn't take Jack either, but the Devil gave Jack an ember inside of a carved out turnip to light his way for all of eternity. These carved out turnips were then called Jack of the Lanterns, which was eventually shortened to Jack O'Lanterns. When the Irish came to the U.S. they found that pumpkins worked a lot better than turnips, and this is the history of Jack O'Lanterns.