Folklore Says Devil Had Hand in Halloween Icon's Birth

Jack-o'-Lanterns, those carved up, hollowed out pumpkins, often with candles inside of them, have been the face of Halloween for centuries. But when it comes to the history of the venerable o'-Lantern, most people don't know, well, jack. Jack-o'-Lanterns first surfaced in Ireland, where Halloween originated.

The tradition came out of an Irish myth about a man called "Stingy Jack.'' The tale says that Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him, and when Jack decided he didn't want to pay for his libation, he coaxed the Devil to turn himself into a coin. Jack claimed he would use the coin to pay for the drinks. That turned out to be a falsehood, the story goes. Once the Devil became a coin, Jack elected to keep the money and put it in his pocket next to a cross, precluding the Devil from reverting to his original self.

Jack eventually freed the Devil, with the agreement that Devil would leave Jack alone for a year and that if he died, the Devil wouldn't claim his soul. However, legend has it that the Devil once again fell for Jack's chicanery the following year. Jack conned the Devil into climbing a tree for a piece of fruit, after which Jack carved a sign of the cross on the tree's back. That meant the Devil couldn't come down until the Devil promised Jack to not bother him for 10 years.

It never got that far. Jack died a short time later. The story goes that such an unseemly figure would never been allowed in heaven. But hell didn't want Jack, either. The Devil, peeved by Jack's serial trickery, wouldn't allow Jack in that hot spot. Interestingly, the Devil was keeping his word that he wouldn't claim Jack's soul. Instead, Jack was sent off into the darkness with burning coal to provide light. Jack put the lump of coal into a hollowed turnip (said to be his favorite vegetable) and went off on his merry way, apparently never to be heard from again. Jack may have been gone, but he was hardly forgotten.

The Irish started referring to wayward Jack as Jack of the Lantern, which was eventually shortened to Jack-o'-Lantern, which means night watchman or man with a lantern. The term was reportedly coined in 1837. From here, the Irish tradition of carving faces into turnips and other vegetables and placing in windows or by doors on Halloween began. The idea was to scare away evil Stingy Jack and other folks of his ilk. This also became a yearly practice in Scotland as well.

In each case, pumpkins weren't commonly used. Instead turnips were the veggie of choice, along with rutabagas, potatoes and beets. Pumpkins didn't become typical until the Jack-o'-Lantern tradition was brought to the United States by immigrants. Today, making Jack-o'-Lanterns for Halloween has become an extremely popular enterprise, for children and adults alike.

There are Web sites dedicated to giving tips on which tools to use to carve pumpkins and how to light them, along with sundry other Halloween sites. Jack-o'-Lantern buffs would probably love to know that on October 21, 2006, a world record for most "Jacks" carved and lit in one place was set. On Boston Common, a whopping 30,128 lanterns were amassed, shattering a mark previously set in Keene, New Hampshire that had stood for years. The world's largest Jack-o'-Lantern ever created was the handiwork of Scott Cully of Northern Cambria, northeast of Pittsburgh.

On October 31, 2005, Cully fashioned a Jack-o'-Lantern from a pumpkin checking in at 1,469 pounds, roughly the size of an NFL offensive line. Some people are fortunate enough to use their artistic talent to make a living at pumpkin carving. Probably the most eminent person in this craft is New Yorker Ray Villafane. He has done collectables for Warner Bros./ DC Comics, McFarlane Toys and others. In 2007, Villafane was invited to appear in the Food Network show "Outrageous Pumpkins" as one of four professional sculptors.

Not surprisingly, Villafane carved up the others to win the competition, going on to repeat the feat in subsequent shows. He has also been featured on numerous other media outlets. Villafane's work is known worldwide and has appeared at the President's Quarters in the White House, Bermuda's Sousa Gardens as well as many other spots around the globe.

When it comes to pumpkins, Villafane isn't limited to the Halloween theme. He's done carvings of Vikings, Indians, football players, even "Chucky." And if Jack ever resurfaces, Villafane would probably thank him for making all this possible by buying him a drink

Source : Sandiego News

READ MORE - History of the Halloween Jack- o'-Lantern

Scary movies are the reason for the season, well not really, but they are a good way to help get into the spooky mood needed to scare the neighbor kids when they come begging for candy.

In the spirit of the season, I've compiled a list of the 10 best movies to scare you and your friends silly. Beware the creepy crawlies that might go bump in the night after watching these horrific horror flicks.

10. “Hellraiser” (1987). Written and directed by Clive Barker, in this film an unfaithful bride encounters a zombie version of her dead lover, and decides to help him harvest blood so that he can rise from the dead. The flick spawned eight sequels, which all suffer from the law of diminishing returns, but the first one remains one of the best horror films ever made.

9. “In The Mouth of Madness” (1994). A Cthulhu inspired chiller, directed by John Carpenter. Searching for an elusive horror author, John Trent (Sam Neill) discovers he may have bitten off more than he could chew when arriving at Hobb's End. The last of thematic apocalypse trilogy, a film that requires a sharp focus as it takes you on a ride to the darker recesses of the mind.

8. “Drag Me To Hell” (2009). Directed by Sam Raimi, written by Sam and his brother, Ivan Raimi. The Raimis wrote this film before Sam began work on the Spider-Man franchise, but didn't get around to making it until a few years after. Fans of the Raimis’ horror work won't be disappointed. This one is about a family that hires a medium to help their son who claims to keep seeing and hearing monsters. During the seance, an unknown force bursts out and drags the boy into the ground, flash forward 30 years and a woman is seen being cursed after she slighted an old lady, by the end of the film more than just the boy has been dragged through the Earth straight to the fiery depths below.

7. “Suspiria” (1977). Italian horror master Daria Argento makes his first appearance on the list with a classic scary movie. The film follows an American ballet dancer as she moves to Germany and discovers that her dance school is led by a coven of witches.

6. “The Evil Dead Trilogy” (1981, '87, '92). All three written and directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell. The first movie in this trilogy launched the careers of a lot of “B” actors, as well as Raimi.

Filmed right here in Michigan while Raimi was attending Michigan State University, this may be the only film in history that includes interspecies rape, where the rapist is a tree.

“Evil Dead 2” is in essence a bigger budget remake with some slight recasting to give some roles to real actors and not just friends willing to work cheap. The third film in the series, is where the franchise finally comes into its own, when the main character, Ash, decides to take down the entire forces of evil with nothing but his boomstick.

5. “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974). This film is where the modern slasher flick evolved from, not to mention several sequels and a remake. Written and directed by Tobe Hooper, the flick was marketed as based on a true story. While the killer, Leatherface, was in fact based on Ed Gein, the story itself is completely fictional.


4. “The Thing” (1982). The first film in the unofficial apocalypse trilogy from John Carpenter is in many ways his masterpiece. The Thing is an extra terrestrial parasite that can change its shape and mimic other life forms. Nearly 30 years later, a prequel, also titled “The Thing,” is in theaters now.

3. B. “A Nightmare On Elm Street” (1984). This film marked the first big screen appearance of Johnny Depp, though he dies in the opening scenes. Written and directed by Wes Craven, who is a true master of horror and is at his best working on this series. The film’s antagonist is the horrifying Freddy Krueger who went on to give children nightmares through eight sequels, a TV series and a remake of the original in 2010.

3. A. “Friday the 13th” (1980). You can't deny that these two film series are linked forever, and not just because one of the sequels in each series is called Freddy vs. Jason and is a crossover of the two series’ antagonists as they battle each other. Jason Voorhies is the main villain of this series as he seeks revenge on children and camp counselors from Camp Crystal Lake, where he drowned as a child. This series spans 11 films, plus a remake released in 2009.

2. “Halloween” (1978). How could I make a top 10 Halloween films list and leave off a film titled “Halloween?” Well, I couldn't. John Carpenter checks in for the third time on the list here, though this one isn't a part of the same trilogy that the other two entries were. Michael Meyers is the series’ antagonist here as a mental patient who murdered his teen-age sister when he was 6 years old. Fifteen years later he escapes the sanitarium and starts off on another killing spree. This series spans eight films in the original run, plus a remake that also had a sequel.

1. “The Shining” (1980). Based on a Stephen King novel and directed by Stanley Kubrick, this film is either loved or hated, not much middle ground from the fan base of either man, or of movies in general. There may not be a horror film that has had a bigger impact on pop culture throughout the years.


Source : The News Herald

READ MORE - 10 Movies For Hallowen