When Halloween arrives we like to tell and listen to stories. There is a very curious legend that is the Jack-o’-lantern. Don’t you know? Well, it’s very pretty, so here we bring it to you. The true story of Jack-o’-lantern: The Irish legend of this Halloween pumpkin. You will like.
It is probably the most important Halloween legend, since it provides the quintessential symbol or icon of the holiday, that is, the carved pumpkins.
Jack-o’-lantern is the name given by the Irish to these carved pumpkins (although initially they were turnips or even pumpkins) when they arrived in the United States in the 19th century, a name that remains to this day.
The first thing you should know is the context in which the events take place, before meeting the character and his legend: everything happened in the Celtic New Year’s Eve or Samhainwhich is considered a timeless evening, since it does not belong, according to Celtic tradition, neither to the old nor to the new year.
That is why on that night it is possible to see, according to legend, a individual carrying a pumpkin with a piece of burning coal insidecoming from hell itselfbut do you know who this Jack is and why an ordinary man like him was condemned?
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Who is Jack-o’-lantern?
Jack, or Will, according to tradition, was a man who was particularly known for two traits: being a drunk and a tightwad. However, he did not consider himself to be a greedy person, quite the opposite, he believed himself to be a generous being, who had simply had bad luck in life, since he had never won a bet-he was a gambler also-.
If he had ever won enough money in gambling, he was convinced that he would have given all the alms he could to the poor. He also knew firsthand the hardships experienced by all those who lived in poverty.
Jack-o’-lantern, however, is not that he did not know anything, on the contrary, he was a very good blacksmith, although very little applied, in fact, every time he made money, he did nothing but squander it on his own vices. “satan”, at least according to the Christian morality of the time.
In a way, the relationship between satan and Jack was closer than it might seem: Jack himself believed that the Devil was nothing more than an angel who was in charge of making sure that everything went wrong for him: he was the one who watched over because the good Luck was never on his side. This is how, little by little, in the mind of Jack-o’-lantern the Devil was introduced little by little, until he appeared to him, however, Jack will be the only person capable of deceiving satan himself.
Jack’s story varies according to the legend, in fact, many times he is presented as a thief (without being a blacksmith).
Historically speaking, it seems more like the creation of a story based on the characteristics of the time, for example, we know that the will-o’-the-wisps at that time used to be known by the name of Will O’Wisps or, precisely, Jack-o’- lantern, which is why the character’s name is also a variant.
Legend of Jack-o’-Lantern
The jack-o’-lantern legend It wouldn’t make sense if we didn’t have the context of who Jack was or when it all happened, because, in fact, the construction of the story probably combined these factors to create one of the best legends in history, still celebrated around the world.
The first jack trick the devil it happened in eve of the Christian holiday of All Saintswhich explains the desire to Jack going out that night to “celebrate” in stylegoing out to drink, precisely, with the Devil, whom he will convince to pay the bill by turning (the Devil) into a currency, how could it be otherwise, when Jack is a tightwad.
The “inconvenience” -or, better said, trick- is that Jack did not use that coin to pay, but on the contrary, he kept it in his pocket, with a silver cross, so that Satan could not return. acquire its original form.
The deal offered by Jack-o’-lantern to the Devil he tried to get him to promise Jack not to go to hell or, in other words, not to open the doors to him, since he didn’t want to go, a proposal that the Devil accepted.
Satan, however, is stubborn, so he visited Jack again, albeit, after about 10 years. Jack while after that time, according to legend, he had already been leaving -little by little- the vices of both drinking and gambling, even, it is believed that he had stopped thinking about the Devil.
The meeting between the two took place in the field, and had not been “previously agreed” as it was the first time, however, Jack managed to convince the Devil to bring down the fruits from the top of a treeit is believed that from an apple tree, once above, however, Jack took the fruits and drew a cross on the trunk.
So the Devil remained a prisoner at the top of the tree (Jack entrusted the cross to Jesus Christ) and, of course, tricked by Jack a second time, just like the other time, the deal was that he would not let him enter hell.
Thus, in another of Samhain nights (day of darkness), Jack will walk and walkuntil he reaches the gates of heaven, where Saint Peter will not receive him – of course, because of his life as a sinner – and he will reach the gates of hell, where he will meet Satan, who will not let him pass either, although he did give him a ember from hell, the one he carries inside the gourd he carved.
That is the legend of jack-o’-lanternA simple any man who managed to deceive Satan and that he wanders in the nights of the end of the cycle of time trying to find his placesince it is neither the world, nor heaven, nor hell.
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