Also called jack-o'-lantern, turnip lantern, punkie, Hoberdy's lantern, Stingy Jack's lantern
A hollowed vegetable, now usually a pumpkin, carved with a face and lit from within at Halloween. In Ireland and Britain the turnip or mangelwurzel lanterns were set in windows to keep harmful spirits away, and the Irish tale of Stingy Jack explains its name.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Do the cutting with a proper carving tool and keep children away from sharp knives. A battery light is safest; if you use a real candle, keep the lantern away from costumes, curtains and dry leaves and never leave it burning unattended.
On the last Thursday of October, children in Hinton St George and nearby villages carry carved mangelwurzel lanterns called punkies and sing a begging song for candles. Local legend says the custom began when wives carved lanterns to find their husbands, who had fallen asleep drunk after the Chiselborough fair.
Uses: Mangelwurzel, Candle
In Worcestershire, turnips were carved into lanterns called Hoberdy's or Hobany's lanterns, a name probably derived from Hob, a household spirit. It is one of the earliest English records of a carved vegetable lantern.
Uses: Turnip, Candle
In North America the carved pumpkin first belonged to the harvest season in general, and John Greenleaf Whittier's 1850 poem The Pumpkin describes boys carving faces lit by a candle. A Kingston, Ontario, newspaper in 1866 tied pumpkin lanterns to Halloween, and the American custom spread back to Britain and Ireland in the 20th century.
Uses: Pumpkin, Tallow candle
Jack-o'-lantern first meant the ghostly light seen over bogs, the will-o'-the-wisp; the Oxford English Dictionary records it from the 1660s and gives 1837 as the first use for a carved lantern. In the 19th century turnips and mangelwurzels were hollowed and carved with grotesque faces at Halloween in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and parts of England. Those who made them said they stood for spirits or were set on windowsills to keep harmful spirits out of the house.
The Dublin Penny Journal printed the legend of Jack-o'-the-Lantern in January 1836. In the folktale, a drunkard called Stingy Jack traps the Devil twice, first as a coin in a pocket beside a crucifix and then up an apple tree ringed with crosses, and wins a promise that he will never go to Hell. Barred from Heaven too, he is left to roam with an ember in a hollowed turnip. Irish and Scottish emigrants carried the custom to North America, where the larger pumpkin took over.
Naming two nuts for a couple and setting them side by side on the fire on Hallowe'en. If they burn quietly together the match is good; if they jump apart, it is not.
A meal prepared and eaten in total silence, often backwards, at midnight. In Appalachia and the Ozarks young women set it to see the spirit of their future husband walk in; modern Pagans keep it at Samhain as a quiet supper for the dead.
The Halloween apple games of Ireland, Scotland and England: biting at an apple hung on a string, or ducking for apples in a tub of water, with the winner promised luck or an early marriage. Daniel Maclise painted the scene at a Blarney party in 1832.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
