The Origins of the Jack-o'-Lantern: Why We Carve Pumpkins
Before there were pumpkins, there were turnips. The jack-o'-lantern crossed an ocean and a folk tale before it became the glowing face on your porch.
Published 2026-10-02 · By the Halloween Countdown team
It started with a turnip, not a pumpkin
Long before glowing pumpkins lined American porches, families in Ireland and Scotland carved scary faces into turnips, beets, and potatoes. These carved roots were set near doors and windows on Samhain — the ancient Celtic festival that marked summer's end — to scare off wandering spirits and the devil himself.
The original jack-o'-lantern was small, gnarly, and practical: root vegetables kept through the cold months, hollowed out and lit with a coal or candle. When Irish and Scottish immigrants arrived in America in the 1800s, they found a native fruit that was bigger, easier to carve, and far more dramatic: the pumpkin.
The legend of Stingy Jack
The name 'jack-o'-lantern' comes from an Irish folk tale about a man known as Stingy Jack. As the story goes, Jack tricked the devil twice — once by sharing a drink and refusing to pay, and once by trapping him up an apple tree with a cross.
When Jack died, heaven wouldn't take him for his stingy, deceitful life, and the devil wouldn't take him either, still stinging from the tricks. The devil sent Jack off into the dark night with a single burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal in a carved-out turnip and has been wandering ever since — 'Jack of the Lantern.'
People carved their own lanterns in his likeness to keep him and other restless spirits away from their homes on the one night the veil between worlds was thinnest.
Why pumpkins won out in America
Pumpkins are native to North America, and they were abundant, cheap, and enormous compared to the turnips of the old country. A single pumpkin could hold a candle, a face, and a lot more fright. Irish immigrants swapped turnips for pumpkins sometime in the mid-1800s, and the modern jack-o'-lantern was born.
The earliest written mention of a carved pumpkin as a 'jack-lantern' dates to an 1866 American children's magazine, by which point the practice was already a familiar Halloween tradition in the United States.
How to carve one like a pro
Pick a pumpkin that sits flat and has a sturdy stem. Cut the lid at an angle so it doesn't fall through, scoop the guts (great for roasting seeds), and sketch your face before you cut. For safety and a clean glow, swap a real candle for an LED tea light — the same eerie light, none of the fire risk.
Save the seeds, toss them in oil and salt, and roast at 400°F for about 15 minutes. Even the byproduct of a jack-o'-lantern is a Halloween snack.
Halloween Q&A
- Why do we carve pumpkins on Halloween?
- We carve pumpkins because Irish and Scottish immigrants brought the older tradition of carving turnips to ward off spirits on Samhain. Pumpkins were bigger, easier to carve, and native to North America, so they replaced turnips in the 1800s.
- Who was Jack in jack-o'-lantern?
- Jack refers to Stingy Jack, a figure in Irish folklore who tricked the devil and was doomed to wander the night with a single coal inside a carved turnip — 'Jack of the Lantern.'
- Are LED candles safer for jack-o'-lanterns?
- Yes. LED candles remove the fire hazard near flammable costumes and décor while keeping the same glowing look, which is why we recommend them in our Halloween safety tips.