The Devil obliged and took him to the pub. Jack, being the cunning bastard that he was, convinced the Devil to allow him to have a last drink at the pub before eternal damnation. Jack was wandering around town drunk out of his mind one night when the Devil came for his soul. The Devil heard about Jack’s reputation and decided to come claim his soul early. He had a reputation of being a vile man who manipulated and tricked others and was known for being a smooth-talking liar. Jack was a stingy man and a drunkard and it is because of this he was referred to as Stingy Jack. The version of the story that I’m most familiar with goes as such there once was a blacksmith named Jack. That story is the one of Stingy Jack and the Devil. However, there’s only one story that I’ve come across that involves Jack in Irish folklore – most likely coming from English influence upon Ireland. In British folklore, Jack is a recurring character who has many confrontations with either the Devil or other mythological creatures such as the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk. The name Jack essentially just refers to a man in general and even here in America we have expressions and idioms where we can see that such as “Jack of all trades”, “every man Jack”, or even “lumberjack”. You may notice that Jack is a common name in English folklore, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales. The story revolves around a man named Jack and there are countless variations of this tale. One of these Irish customs that they brought with them and that still lives on today was the tradition creating Jack-o-Lantern. The potato famine of Ireland brought many Irish Catholic immigrants to these Southern Colonies and with them their customs, including their Halloween customs. During the 1840s, Halloween re-emerged in the Southern colonies such as Virginia with the influx of Irish immigrants. In fact, the Puritans didn’t even celebrate Christmas, going so far as to ban Christmas in 1659 with a fine for anyone who observed the holiday. Puritans didn’t celebrate any religious holidays including Halloween, which was a Catholic holiday. When America was being colonized, it was colonized primarily by pilgrims who were Protestants searching for a new land to openly and freely worship outside of Catholicism. This lead to the Protestant schism of Catholicism and many Protestant Christians observe Halloween as Reformation Day, commemorating the act that splintered Christianity away from the Catholic Church. Halloween also marked the day that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
Samhain was Christianized and adopted in Catholicism as Christianity rose as the predominant religion. Halloween was originally rooted in the Pagan Gaelic celebration of Samhain, a time when the veil between this world and the world of spirits was the thinnest and those who had passed over to the world of spirit were honored and remembered. However, Halloween wasn’t originally celebrated by the New England colonies – especially within Salem which was immensely Puritan – a main factor in the Salem Witch Trials hysteria. Salem is considered to be the “Halloween Capital of the World” mostly due to its history and associations with witchcraft.
Right now, I’m writing this article here in Salem, Massachusetts where I have spent the last six Octobers. While countless people engage in the creation of Jack-o-Lantern, I often find that many are not familiar with where this tradition comes from or the folklore behind it. Every year around Halloween time people take home pumpkins and begin carving them into Jack-o-Lanterns. The Jack-o-Lantern is one of the most prominent symbols of Halloween.
A post shared by Mat Auryn on at 4:09pm PDT
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