Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Happy Halloween -
According to legend, the jack o’lantern was named after a reprobate Irishman called Stingy Jack who tricked the Devil into promising he wouldn’t go to hell for his sins.
When Jack died he learned he was barred from heaven, so he went down to the gates of hell after all to beg for a final resting place.
Wouldn’t you know it, the Devil kept his promise, dooming Jack to wander the earth for all eternity with only an ember of hellfire of to light his way.
Thenceforth he was known as Jack O’Lantern.
It wasn’t until Irish immigrants brought the custom of carving jack o’lanterns to North America that pumpkins began to be used for that purpose,
and not until the late 19th century that pumpkin carving became a Halloween fixture.
Update - yesterday’s weather. We got 3 inches of snow!
Posted by cassie-b • 07:55 AM
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