Happy Halloween!

Doug — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:33:34 +0000

Boo! … Did I scare ya? … Saturday is Halloween. This annual celebration is marked by costumes, trick-or-trating, haunted houses, and the barage of scary movies on TV. One of tradistions of Halloween include carving pumpkins to create jack o’lanterns. But have you ever wondered about the History of this tradition? According to the History Channel:

People have been making jack o’lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack.” According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack O’Lantern.”

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o’lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o’lanterns.

Check out the entire Halloween website produced by the History Channel.

Check out this sweet video of a ghost car. Pay close attention to the car. You may need to go full screen to see it:

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins for All!

Gavin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:10:00 +0000

I hope this isn’t too premature, but you know, Halloween is just around the corner. I’m sure you all remember those times back when you were just a young pup, or even last year, when you participated in all the Halloween festivities. There was an opportunity to become a different person, collect sugar packed goodies, and even take a knife to a vegetable. I am talking about pumpkins of course. I know we all used to carve pumpkins and create a jack-o-lantern to celebrate Halloween, with adult supervision of course. With a tradition as solid as this, does anyone ever wonder what would happen without pumpkins? It just so happens that this years pumpkin harvest has been less than satisfactory, due to lack of rain. Did anyone ever wonder where these marvelous orange blobs come from? As it turns out, 90% of all pumpkins sold in the US come from Illinois. Yes, our little Midwestern state is the country’s greatest producer of pumpkins. So does this mean that there won’t be any pumpkins this Halloween? Don’t get discouraged, according to UIUC researchers, there will be plenty of pumpkins in Illinois; it is the rest of the country is who is going to be missing out. Yet another reason that it is great to be an Illinoisan!

“Illinois consumers will not suffer. There will be plenty of fall pumpkins,” said Mosbah Kushad. “The flooding has affected the crops especially north of I-80, but it will just mean that there will be fewer pumpkins exported this year to other states.”

Plenty of Pumpkins for Halloween in Illinois

UIUC Chemistry 102 Pumpkin Demo

The Quad » Pumpkins

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins for All!