How did the Jack-o-Lantern tradition begin?
People in ancient Ireland used to put out turnips (they didn’t have pumpkins) carved with human faces, in the belief that there was a man named Jack who was not allowed to enter Heaven and had to roam Earth forever. The turnips were to give him light on his journey. Then when the Irish came to the US, they found that pumpkins were much easier to carve than turnips, so they continued their tradition, but with pumpkins instead of turnips. Eventually the tradition spread all over the US.
