Impressed with his minion’s cunning, the devil agreed and was set free. This time, Jack demanded that his soul should never be banished to Hell. Satan found himself hopelessly trapped again. As he climbed the branches of a nearby apple tree, Jack surrounded its base with crucifixes. The apple had been a useful tool to Satan in the Garden of Eden, so why not? Foolishly, the devil agreed. Jack asked the devil for one final wish an apple to feed his starving belly. This time, Jack knew what it meant and resigned his fate that now it was time to go to Hell for good. Jack then came up with the original “deal with the devil.” In exchange for Beelzebub’s freedom, the devil had to spare Jack’s soul for ten years.Ī decade later, stumbling drunk once again, Jack encountered Satan in the same setting as before. The pocketed coin rested against Jack’s crucifix, prohibiting the devil from escaping his form. Shrewdly, Jack quickly tucked the transmogrified coin into his pocket. ![]() Impressed by Jack’s quick-thinking nefarious tactics, the devil did so. Satan could then change back when the bartender wasn’t looking. Jack convinced the devil to turn himself into a silver coin with which to pay the bartender. When it came time to pay the tab, neither man had any money. Satan took Jack to the local pub where the two quickly got blotto drunk. Since alcohol was considered to be the “devil’s brew,” Lucifer saw no reason to deny Jack’s request. He asked the devil for one final trip to the local pub to drink ale before he whisked him off to Hell. Jack fell to his knees and begged the devil for one last request. Satan had finally come to collect his malevolent soul. Jack, the wayward product of a good Irish-Catholic family, knew instinctively that it was the devil himself. Here was a wicked-looking man, his head resting in the palm of his hand topping a crooked elbow, an eerie grimace on his face. The devil lay in wait for the drunkard, his body blocking the cobblestone path.Īs Jack stumbled forward, he could not believe his eyes. He found Jack drunk, aimlessly wandering the countryside. Impressed by the stories, the devil determined to find out for himself whether Jack lived up to such a vile reputation. ![]() His selfish spirit possessed not a shred of humanity or kindness for anyone. Jack was a two-faced, deceitful schemer who thrived on manipulating people. One fateful night, Satan overheard the tale of Jack’s slick and shady ways. Stingy Jack is variously known as Jack the Smith, Drunk Jack, Flaky Jack, and of course as the mascot of the holiday, Jack-o’-lantern.Īs the story goes, in Ireland’s ancient times, there lived a drunkard known throughout the land as a liar, a cheat, and a grifter. The main character of the story goes by many names. ![]() A jack-o’-lantern is the earthly reminder of an Irishman named “Stingy Jack,” a blacksmith of the lowest order who cheated the Devil twice and got away with it. And of course, the tradition generates from an ancient Irish legend brought to the United States by Irish immigrants. We are here to talk about jack-o’-lanterns. ![]() Mind blown.īut THAT is a discussion for another article. However, if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, a pumpkin is technically a berry, but so are watermelons, cucumbers, bananas, and tomatoes. A pumpkin is part of the Cucurbitaceae family, which includes almost 1,000 species including cucumbers, cantaloupes, honeydew, and more. While it is true that people have been carving jack-o’-lanterns for centuries, not all of them were made from pumpkins.Īnd what about that pumpkin? Exactly what is it anyway? Is it a fruit? Is it a squash? Is it a gourd? The answer is yes to all of the above. It is just as easy to imagine children on the Indiana frontier carving pumpkins two hundred years ago the same exact way as children do today. One such tradition is the jack-o’-lantern. Very few holiday traditions remain in their original form.
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