Four things I learned for Halloween!

 

 

For Halloween we need some special spooky… or at least Halloween fun facts

 

#97  October 31:  What is America’s favorite Halloween candy?  In our house its Snickers, but according to candy distributor CandyStore.com which crunched 15 years of data the winner is Reese’s peanut butter cups!

 

#98  November 1:  In what state is it the norm for trick-or-treaters to receive full-size candy bars on Halloween?  Better move to Oregon!  10/30/2023

 

#99 November 2:  Harry Houdini passed away on Halloween Day, from a burst appendix in 1926.  Ouch!!  10/30

#101 November 4:  I’m printing this story verbatim from “Interesting Facts”.  While the story is fun, what I learned was we didn’t have jack-o’-lanterns until the Civil War.  I always thought they were from the story of the Headless Horseman.  But I just looked and Washington Irving wrote it right before the war in 1820. 10/31

STINGY JACK

No matter what face you carve into your Halloween pumpkin, it will probably be called the same thing: a jack-o’-lantern. But how did spooky illuminated squash get that name? Turns out, the term we use to describe glowing pumpkins comes from Stingy Jack, the main character in a centuries-old Irish myth. 

Americans haven’t always carved pumpkins; it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that squash was used for holiday fun. About 200 years before, those celebrating the harvest season in Ireland were making their own lanterns from turnips, beets, and other root vegetables as a way to ward off Stingy Jack, a phantom who roamed the countryside around the harvest. According to Irish lore, Stingy Jack (sometimes called Flakey Jack) was a swindler who took up drinking with the devil, though when the tab came due, he didn’t want to pay his share. After convincing the devil to turn into a coin, Jack trapped his drinking partner in his pocket, releasing him only with the agreement that Jack’s soul would stay free of the underworld. However, as in all folktales, there was a catch (and a warning about immoral behavior): At the end of his life, Jack’s trickster soul wasn’t accepted into heaven or hell, leaving him to wander the earth with naught but a coal (provided by the devil himself) inside a turnip-turned-lantern. By the story’s end, Stingy Jack became “Jack of the Lantern,” which eventually morphed into “Jack O’Lantern.”

Irish immigrants brought the Stingy Jack story to America, though the name and practice of jack-o’-lantern carving took some time to catch on. It particularly picked up following the Civil War, when a grief-struck nation became fascinated by spirits and ghost stories, and it’s a tradition that’s become a fixture of autumn in America ever since.