The legend of Stingy Jack says that once upon a time in Ireland, the devil was tricked by Jack Oldfield to obtain a guarantee that his soul would be spared from hell. After Jack’s death, however, his soul was not admitted to heaven either, so he was condemned to wander the darkness in between. The devil gave Jack a piece of glowing coal, which he put into a carved turnip (Brassica rapa subsp. rapa) to light his way. The term ‘jack-o’-lantern’ was originally used to describe an ignis fatuus, a ghost light that was often seen by travellers close to bogs and swamps. In the nineteenth century, the term was adapted to carved root vegetables such as turnips, rutabagas (Brassica napus) or mangelwurzel (Beta vulgaris) that were used as lanterns at festivals in the UK and Ireland.

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One of these festivals was the traditional Celtic festival of Samhain, which may be one of the origins of Halloween. Samhain is one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals and marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of the winter season. Its origins may date back to the Neolithic period, as some passage tombs are aligned with the position of the sun at the date of Samhain. After the Christianization of the UK and Ireland, All Saints’ Day was set on 1 November by the churches and propagated in Europe by Irish missionaries. This date may have been influenced by Samhain occurring around the same time of year. Only much later, the evening before All Saints’ Day, All Hallows’ Eve, or Halloween as it is called today, became blended with traditions that may be rooted in Samhain.

The tradition of carving jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween using turnips and other root vegetables emerged in the nineteenth century. However, in other parts of Europe, the carving of turnips is potentially much older. In Switzerland, turnips are carved into lanterns called Räbeliechtli, which are used for traditional lantern processions around Saint Martin’s Day on 11 November. The origin of this tradition is not entirely clear, but turnips were among the most important basic foods before the potato conquered Europe in the seventeenth century. The harvesting of turnips in October and November coincides with the lengthening of nights after the September equinox, and paper was much too expensive in Europe during medieval times to be used for lanterns. Hence, it is tempting to think that turnips and possibly other root vegetables with robust skin may have been used as lanterns long before these were integrated in festive traditions.

Irish immigrants to the USA and Canada brought with them the tradition of Halloween and the jack-o’-lantern. However, the North American native pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo var. pepo) is more available and easier to carve and so replaced the traditional root vegetable. In the USA and Canada, however, the pumpkin was much more associated with the festival of Thanksgiving, and pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween were not very widespread in the nineteenth century. Instead, pumpkin carving was adapted to Thanksgiving for some time, with happy, instead of scary, faces being carved around 1900. It was only during the twentieth century that Halloween was massively popularized in the USA and Canada, and today, the scary-looking jack-o’-lantern is almost exclusively associated with Halloween, whereas pumpkins in general remain an important Thanksgiving decoration.

Although pumpkin carving for Halloween is not older than 200 years, other squashes have been carved for centuries. The pantropic calabash (Lagenaria siceraria), also from the Cucurbitaceae family, is traditionally carved in many countries around the world and used as a decorative vessel or as a resonator in musical instruments. In China, gourd carving dates back to the Tang dynasty in the seventh and eighth centuries and is still performed today. In Peru, the artistic carving of gourds called mate burilado is a folk art that dates back to pre-Hispanic times. In North America, Indigenous peoples used gourds to carve birdhouses that attracted purple martins, which helped to control insect pests. Other gourds such as the buffalo gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima) were used to craft artistic vessels and rattles.

Carving pumpkins for Halloween is not just a festive tradition; it is also an important economic factor. In 2024, the USA produced pumpkins to a value of more than US $270 million1, and consumers spent over $760 million on pumpkins during that Halloween season2, with the difference being imported, primarily from Mexico. In the UK, customers spent £1.4 million on pumpkins in the few weeks before Halloween in 2024, which is twice as much as in the previous year3. Therefore, it seems that jack-o’-lantern decorations for Halloween represent a growing market in the UK, and presumably in other European countries.

The jack-o’-lantern is certainly among the spookiest Halloween decorations and has become a symbol of the festival. Other plants would qualify as spooky as well — for example, the snapdragon, which has tiny, skull-shaped seed pods, or the haunting bat flower. But no other plant achieves the worldwide popularity of the pumpkin with its carved scary face.