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Museum of Country Life, Ireland |
The tradition of carving lanterns for the season began not with pumpkins, but with humble root vegetables. Long before pumpkins were cultivated in Europe, Celtic peoples in Ireland and Scotland carved out turnips, swedes, or even large beets. Into these hollowed roots they placed candles or embers, transforming them into protective talismans. The purpose was twofold: the light was a guide for ancestral spirits returning to the world of the living during Samhain, and the carved faces were a warning to mischievous or harmful beings to stay away from hearth and home.
Samhain, the great fire festival marking the start of winter, was a liminal time when the veil between worlds was believed to grow thin. It was a season both of reverence for the dead and of caution against restless or dangerous spirits. Carved lanterns carried the symbolism of fire - light in the darkness, life against death - and added a protective boundary around homes and villages. Bonfires blazed on hilltops for community protection, while the smaller vegetable lanterns served a household or individual purpose, glowing guardians against the night.
Folklore also tells of “will-o’-the-wisps,” ghostly lights seen at night over bogs and marshes, thought to be wandering souls or trickster spirits. The carved lanterns imitated or counteracted these uncanny lights, giving people a sense of control over the unseen. In Ireland, tales of “Stingy Jack,” a trickster condemned to wander the earth with only a carved turnip lantern, became entwined with the practice, lending the name “jack-o’-lantern” to these glowing faces.
It was only with the migration of Celtic people to North America that pumpkins entered the story. Pumpkins, native to the continent, were larger, softer, and far easier to carve than turnips or beets. Their size allowed for more elaborate designs, and their golden flesh glowed beautifully when lit from within. By the 19th century, the pumpkin had replaced the turnip as the lantern of choice among Irish immigrants, and the practice spread widely, eventually becoming inseparable from Halloween festivities.
Yet behind the modern decorations lies the older pagan symbolism. The jack-o’-lantern is not merely an ornament - it is a reminder of humanity’s ancient relationship with fire and light. It embodies protection, transformation, and the power of the hearth to keep the shadows at bay. In carving faces into gourds or roots, people gave form to their fears and their guardians, shaping spirit-beings from the harvest itself.
Today, when we place a pumpkin lantern in our window or garden, we continue a practice that stretches back centuries. Whether we carve a smile, a scowl, or something more abstract, we are echoing the age-old desire to honour the dead, ward off darkness, and hold a flicker of warmth in the turning of the year. The pumpkin lantern is more than festive decoration - it is an ancient fire, still glowing at the threshold of the worlds.