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A Spooky Jack-o’-Lantern Tale

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A Jack-o’-Lantern Legend

The Jack-O’-Lantern comes from a legend that goes back hundreds of years in Irish history. As the story goes, a miserable old drunk named Stingy Jack, who liked to play tricks on his family, friends, and even the Devil, tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree.   Stingy Jack then put crosses around the apple tree’s trunk so the Devil couldn’t get down — but told the Devil that if he promised not to take his soul when he died he would remove the crosses and let the Devil down.

When Jack died, Saint Peter, at the pearly gates of Heaven, told him that he couldn’t enter Heaven because he was mean, cruel, and had led a miserable and worthless life. Stingy Jack then went down to Hell but the Devil wouldn’t take him in.  Jack was scared but with nowhere to go he had to wander around in the darkness between Heaven and Hell.

When Stingy Jack asked the Devil how he could get out without a light to see, the Devil threw him an ember from the flames of Hell. One of Jack’s favorite foods, which he always had when he could steal one, was a turnip.  So he put the ember into a hollowed out turnip and from that day on, Stingy Jack, without a resting place, roamed the earth lighting his way with his “Jack-O’-Lantern.”

All Hallows Eve

Halloween, or the Hallow E’en in Ireland and Scotland, is short for All Hallows Eve, or the night before All Hallows. On All Hallows Eve the Irish made Jack-O’-Lanterns by hollowing out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, and beets and then putting lights in them to keep away both the evil spirits and Stingy Jack.  In the 1800′s when Irish immigrants came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve, and the pumpkin became the Jack-o’-lantern.

If You Want To Eat Your Pumpkin . . .

Jumping from legend to fact:  pumpkins are Cucurbitaceae, a family of vegetables that includes cucumbers and melons. They are fat free and can be baked, steamed, or canned.

One cup of pumpkin has about 30 calories and is high in vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber, and has other nutrients like folate, manganese, and omega 3′s.  Pumpkin is filled with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene which gives it its rich orange hue. It is versatile and can be added to baked goods and blended with many foods.

Pumpkin seeds are delicious and are a good source of iron, copper, and zinc.  Although pumpkin is low in calories, pumpkin seeds are not.   They have 126 calories in an ounce (about 85 seeds) and 285 calories in a cup.

Has Your Perfect Pumpkin Ever Caved In?

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Manhattan Fruit Exchange, Chelsea Market, NYC

Mine has and I finally found out why.

Although lots of us buy pumpkins to cook the pumpkin flesh or toast the seeds (pumpkins have more beta carotene per serving than any other fruit or vegetable), many of us never buy pumpkins except to use as jack-o’-lanterns or for decoration.

Many commercially available “Halloween” pumpkins are specifically grown to be oversized, thin-walled, with a huge seed pocket and a relatively small proportion of flesh.

Smaller sugar pumpkins have more fleshy pumpkin meat for cooking and often have better flavor and texture.

Will Your Jack-o’-Lantern Be Spooky, Happy, Or Creepy?

Pumpkins come in many sizes, shapes, and colors so pick whatever yanks your chain. Sometimes that’s not so easy because if you go with your family everyone often has his or her own vision of what’s appropriately spooky or decorative.

I bought a really great white pumpkin this year — along with an oddly shaped orange one.  I’m not going to carve the white one. It’s sitting on a rock peering out through some sword-leaved yuccas.  Looks great – some members of my family think it’s weird.

What To Look For When You Pick Your Pumpkin

  •  Pick a pumpkin with no cuts, bruises, or soft spots. The flesh should feel hard and not give easily.   According to one of the pumpkin growers at my local farmers’ market, organisms can easily get inside any cut in the flesh – even a small nick — and cause rot.  Your perfect pumpkin will be great one day and the next day it can totally cave-in on itself.
  • My farmers’ market source told me that pumpkins can heal  — if you see a cut in the flesh, expose the cut to air and keep it dry.
  • There’s some chance that if your pumpkin is greenish in color you can leave it in a cool dry spot – not refrigerated – and it will ripen and turn orange.

  • A pumpkin’s stem should be attached.  Don’t pick up a pumpkin by its stem. Stems break off easily and can leave potential entry spots for organisms to invade and cause the dreaded pumpkin cave-in.

  • Gently tap your pumpkin and listen for how hollow it sounds. Lift the pumpkin to get an idea of how dense it is. The heavier a pumpkin is, the thicker its walls. For a jack-o’-lantern, thick walls will block the candlelight and no one will be able to see your fantastic (or maybe not so fantastic) carving.
  • Store your pumpkin carefully, especially if you pick it off the vine. You can toughen-up, or cure, a fresh-picked pumpkin by keeping it in a dry place without handling or disturbing it. Curing toughens the rind and makes it less prone to rot.  Pumpkins can keep for months in a cool (50 degrees Fto 65 degrees F) dry, low humidity environment.

After The Carving . . .

A carved pumpkin starts to dry and shrivel up as soon as it’s cut and exposed to air.

To keep your jack-o’-lantern fresh longer:

  • Keep it cool and out of direct sunlight
  • Spray it with an anti-transpirant (like Wilt-Pruf and other brands)
  • If you’re having a party or just want a big “reveal,” drape your pumpkin with a damp towel until showtime
  • Protect your masterpiece from animals who might find it appealing
  • Don’t leave your jack-o’-lantern outside if there’s a threat of frost.


What Do You Do With The Part Of the Pumpkin You Don’t Eat Or Carve?

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If you’ve ever carved (or tried to carve) a pumpkin, one thing you know for sure:  the pulp and the pumpkin seeds that fill the inside of the pumpkin are stringy, slimy, and slippery as all get out.

Halloween And Kitchen Plumbing Problems

Apparently, this causes lots of kitchen plumbing problems.

How do I know this?  I got an emailed “Pipeline Newsletter” from Roto-Rooter (and away go troubles down the drain). No kidding.   Last year, in the middle of an antarctic cold spell, I had to call them to churn through what seemed like an iceberg, but in reality was a large clump of ice lodged in the pipes somewhere in the bowels of my house.  I guess they saved my email address!

They just wanted to let their clients know that plumbers can get very busy around this time of year.

Why?  During the Halloween season an incredible amount of pumpkin pulp is scraped out of pumpkins by big and little hands using all kinds of utensils.  Although the scooped out flesh might end up in fantastic pies and bread, the seeds and pulp stuff can cause some plumbing nightmares.  The plumbers get called to repair garbage disposers and kitchen sink drains that have been clogged with the slimy, stringy pumpkin pulp and seeds.

What To Do

To help guard against Halloween drain disasters Roto-Rooter suggests that you never put pumpkin pulp or seeds down the toilet, sink drain, or in the garbage disposer.  The slimy, stringy, sticky pumpkin innards clog drains and pipes and can eventually form a hardened blockade inside your plumbing.

They suggest that you carve your pumpkins on a thick pile of newspaper that you can wrap up and take it to the compost pile or garbage pail.

If you separate the seeds out from the slimy stuff before you toss it you can save them and plant then them in the spring for homegrown crop of pumpkins next year.

Or, you can roast them for a healthy, tasty treat. Roasted pumpkin seeds taste great and have contain lean protein and essential minerals like zinc, iron, copper and magnesium. One ounce of pumpkin seeds (28 grams, or about 85 seeds) has 126 calories, 5 g fat (1g is saturated), 15g carbohydrate, and 5g protein.

Some Halloween Trivia:

In case you get involved in a Halloween trivia contest, according to the Guinness World Records:

  • the world’s largest jack o’lantern was carved from a 1469 pound pumpkin on October 31, 2005 in Northern Cambria, Pennsylvania
  • the fastest time on record for carving a face into a pumpkin is 24.03 seconds, recorded in Orlando, Florida on July 23, 2006

Happy Halloween!

The Original Jack O’Lantern Wasn’t A Pumpkin

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And It Comes With A Great Story

Have you carved and cut your pumpkin and created your own original jack O’Lantern?  Some carved pumpkins, as you can see in these photos taken at Chelsea Market in New York City, are works of art. Abingdon Square Park in Greenwich Village hosts a Halloween Jack O’Lantern contest and the little pocket park is filled with glowing pumpkins with faces of all kinds and a variety of senses of humors.

But … What Was The Original Jack O’Lantern?

The Jack O’Lantern stems from a legend that goes back hundreds of years in Irish history. One version of the story is that a miserable old drunk named Stingy Jack, who liked to play tricks on his family, friends, and even the Devil, tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree and then put crosses around its trunk so the Devil couldn’t get down. Stingy Jack then told the Devil that if he promised not to take his soul when he died he would remove the crosses and let the Devil down.

When Jack died he was told by Saint Peter at the pearly gates of Heaven that he was mean and cruel and had led a miserable and worthless life so he couldn’t enter Heaven. He went down to Hell but the Devil kept his promise and wouldn’t take him in.  Jack was scared and with nowhere to go had to wander around in the darkness between Heaven and Hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave without light to see.  To help him light his way the Devil threw him an ember from the flames of Hell. One of Jack’s favorite foods, which he always had when he could steal one, was a turnip.  He put the ember into a hollowed out turnip and from that day on Stingy Jack, without a resting place, roamed the earth lighting his way with his “Jack O’Lantern.”

All Hallows Eve

Halloween, or the Hallow E’en as it is called in Ireland and Scotland, is short for All Hallows Eve, or the night before All Hallows. “Hallow” is a word of Germanic origin that means “holy” in Old English, All Hallows is now called All Saints in modern English, “saint” being a synonym for “hallow” with Old French and ultimately Latin roots.

Samhain was the last day of the Celtic calendar and was a Pagan harvest festival that honored the dead celebrated on October 31st. All Hallows and Samhain became fatefully intertwined in the 9th century when Pope Gregory IV officially assigned the solemnity of All Hallows (previously celebrated in April by Celtic Christians and May by Italian Christians) to November 1st on the universal church calendar to match the custom of the Frankish King of Aquitaine, Louis the Pious, who had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

On All Hallows Eve the Irish made Jack O’Lanterns by hollowing out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, and beets and putting lights in them to keep away both the evil spirits and Stingy Jack.  In the 1800’s when Irish immigrants came to America they discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve, and pumpkins became our Jack O’Lanterns.

Think About Eating Your Pumpkin, Too

Jumping from legend to fact:  pumpkins are Cucurbitaceae, a family of vegetables that includes cucumbers and melons. They are fat free and can be baked, steamed, or canned.

One cup has about 30 calories and is high in vitamin C, potassium, and dietary fiber and has other nutrients like folate, manganese, and omega 3′s.  Pumpkin is filled with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene which gives it a rich orange hue. It is very versatile and can be added to baked goods and blended with many foods. Pumpkin seeds are delicious, too.  They are a good source of iron, copper, and zinc and a quarter cup naturally adds minerals to your healthy diet.  One cautionary note:  pumpkin is low in calories, pumpkin seeds are not.