The jack o' lantern, or carved-and-candle-filled-member-of-the-squash-family
did indeed start as a carved rutabaga or turnip, pumpkins not being
available before the New World was discovered. HOWEVER... it is a good deal
older than Christianity. Lighting such a lantern on Hallowed Eve is
probably a memory of an ancient custom of doing that with the skulls of the
revered ancestors. Whether this was to light the beloved spirits' way home
for a visit at the turning of the year or a way of warding them off or
perhaps using the ancestors' strength to protect the house from evil on a
dangerous night is hard to say. Maybe all of the above.
The very ancient people of the British Isles (all of the isles) seem to have
taken comfort from having their dead with them, under the house, hallowing
the land, perhaps helping to prove the land was theirs by providing a link
between the living and the land itself. We, the children of immagrants,
don't have the land in our bones the way they did.
Just finished a very cool book called _Before Scotland_ which makes a
compelling case for the author's statement that 'the ancient ones', there
before the Celts arrived, were not displaced - five of the six genesets his
collegues traced in the British Isles are related to the pre Celtic folk
(based on common sequences taken from ancient bog bodies and modern humans)
Only one harks from the Middle East, he felt that those were the folks who
brought farming to the isles.
Elena
-----Original Message-----
From: OliveStarlightOrchestra_at_yahoogroups.com
[mailto:OliveStarlightOrchestra_at_yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of 7visions
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 12:00 AM
To: OliveStarlightOrchestra_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: [OliveStarlightOrchestra] Jack o Lantern
----- Original Message -----
Isn't this interesting?
jack-o'-lantern .
Pronunciation: jæk-ê-læn-têrn
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A lantern made from a hollowed pumpkin with openings representing
eyes, nose, and mouth to make it look like a face-a symbol of Halloween.
Notes: No, the symbol of Halloween in North America does not come from a
heavy drinking but stingy Irishman by the name of Jack O'Lantern, though it
is a fetching story. It is the reduction of an old phrase, "jack with a
lantern," spelled in a peculiar way. It is currently used as a single noun,
so the plural is jack-o'-lanterns.
In Play: The custom of putting carved vegetables out on Halloween did
originate with the Catholic Irish. The Irish once placed carved turnips and
rutabagas with candles inside in their windows to ward off the dead souls
they presumed wandered about on the eve of All Saints Day, so-called Hallow
E'en "Holy Evening". They switched to pumpkins when they emigrated to
America.
Word History: Jack-with-a-lantern originally meant simply "man with a
lantern" (jack, as in the phrase, "every man, jack of them"), and referred
to night watchmen. Its structure is analogical with that of
"will-o'-the-wisp", which originally meant only "a man named Will with a
wisp (whiskbroom)". Both "will-o'-the-wisp" and "jack-o'-lantern" later were
used to refer to what the Romans called ignis fatuus "crazy fire," the pale
mysterious fire of swamp gases burning over marshy areas. Will-o'-the-wisp
was presumed to be a sprite carrying a wisp of a torch across the swamps.
Jack-o'-lantern was assumed to be a man with a lantern.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Received on 2005-10-31 23:11:56
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