When it comes to ( somewhat ) edibleHalloweendecorations , thepumpkinis the indisputable whiz of the show , with every other squash and gourd in a supporting use . But back when Halloween was barely a twinkle in the eye of its parent holiday — the ancient Celtic festivalSamhain — a dissimilar veg took center stage : the Brassica rapa .
During Samhain , held from sundown on October 31 through November 1 , it was believed that spirits were capable to refund to the deathly kingdom . And since some of those spirits were less than large-hearted , people tried to keep them at embayment by etching scary locution into freshly harvested turnips and other rootvegetables , like potatoes and beets .
AsSmithsonianreports , repelling potentially villainous specters was n’t the only grounds you might be tend to gut a white potato and give it a face . “ Metal lanterns were quite expensive , so people would hollow out antecedent vegetable , ” Nathan Mannion , aged conservator at Dublin ’s EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum , toldNational Geographic . “ Over sentence people started to carve faces and designs to allow luminosity to beam through the fix without extinguishing the ember . ”
Turnips in particular make an appearance in the Irish legend of “ Stingy Jack , ” in which a homo diagnose Jack con the devil a duo times and gets punished by being outlawed from both heaven and hell . The demon presents him with one radiate coal , which Jack rate in a vacuous Brassica rapa and manoeuvre off to wander Earth for eternity . Anyone who witnessed an inexplicable reference of light over Ireland ’s marshy area might chalk it up to Jack and his lantern — or “ Jack of the Lantern , ” or “ Jack - o’-Lantern . ” ( Those easy source do , in fact , have an explanation : They ’re loosely thought to be make by the combustion of gasolene released during the disintegration of organic fabric . )
When Irish immigrant popularized the narrative — along with the drill of carve turnips — in the U.S. during the nineteenth century , people gradually replaced turnips with pumpkins , which were both abundant and contributing tocarving . But these days , turnip lantern still outmatch their pumpkin counterparts in at least one stead : the Isle of Man . Every October 31 , instead of Halloween , many citizenscelebrateHop - tu - Naa , a similar holiday that marks the transition from harvest season to wintertime . shaver customarilytotetheir Brassica rapa lanterns around townsfolk while collect candy or coin from their neighbors ( though not necessarily outcry “ Trick or treat ! ” at every stop ) .
[ h / tSmithsonian ]
