Pumpkin Carving is an extremely popular past time that people do every year around Halloween. Some people might ask, “Why?” Well, it’s actually a pretty interesting story. It goes back to an Old Irish Legend about Stingy Jack.

Like many legends, there are many versions but we’ll go through the basics here. “Stingy Jack”, “Jack O’Lantern” or “Jack the Smith” was, as you might expect from an Irish Legend, an Irishman. As legend goes, he was a drunkard and a swindler. It seems that the Devil himself caught wind of Jack’s misdeeds and deceptive ways so he went to see for himself. One night when Jack was stumbling around drunk and disoriented, he came across what appeared to be a shadowy figure. When Jack looked up and caught the glimmer of fire in his eyes, he knew that he had met his end and the Devil would claim his soul. Like any true sweet talking swindler, Jack made a last request to buy a little more time. He requested to drink ale before making the trip to Hell. In no hurry at all and somewhat curious to learn more about this sinful soul, the Devil agreed and off they went to the local pub. They drank several ales and Jack finally said he was ready. Boldly, he asked if the Devil would pick up the tab. After all, the Devil was about to claim is soul! Since the Devil had no pocket change, Jack convinced him to change into a gold coin to pay the tab. When the Devil did, Jack immediately put the coin in his pocket where he kept a silver crucifix. The cross rendered the Devil powerless and Jack negotiated with the Devil for an additional 10 years. Seeing no other way out of the situation, the Devil agreed.

Well, still furious from being swindled by this vagabond soul, the Devil returned again in exactly 10 years. Once again, Jack had a final request. He said that he was starving and wanted to eat something before heading going to the underworld forever. Annoyed, the Devil looked around. Quickly discovering a nearby apple tree, he climbed it and picked a few apples for Jack. But again, the Devil found himself in quite a predicament as Jack had laid crosses all around the base of the tree. Furious, the Devil found himself in yet another impossible situation. He agreed to leave Jack and his soul alone forever.

Years past and Jack eventually passed away. Without the Devil there to claim his soul, Jack eagerly made his way to Saint Peter. Standing outside those pearly gates, Jack eagerly anticipated heaven. To his surprise, Saint Peter denied him entry because of the remorseless mischief he caused his entire life. So, left without an alternative, Jack found his way to the underworld to ask for entry there. Ironically, the Devil decided to stay true to his word and deny Jack entry into the underworld. Jack asked, “where will I go?” Pleased at the turn of events (finally), the Devil said, “back from where you came”. At that point, the Devil through a burning ember at Jack symbolizing that even Hell was casting out Jack. Needing to light the way home, Jack picked up the ember as he needed it to light the way. Since the ember was too hot to handle, he placed it into his favorite vegetable, a turnip. Legend says the Jack belonged to the netherworld; the dead walking among the living.

Serving as a warning to others, Jack wanders the earth with his eternally burning ember in a hallowed out turnip.

So, that’s the legend and it prompted many Irish and Scottish people to carve out vegetables and place a burning candle as a way to remind people not to be like Stingy Jack. Well, over the years, many Irish and Scottish people migrated to the United States and brought this tradition with them. Thought there is no specific documentation on why pumpkins, it seems obvious that the popularity of carving pumpkins grew because it’s the best vegetable suited for carving!

To ascertain how pumpkin carving got associated with All Saints Day, Hallows Eve or Halloween, we could delve into the history of Halloween but the fact is that

All Saints Day has long standing tradition well before pumpkin carving became popular. Honestly, it’s not very well documented but it makes sense that the holiday and the pumpkin carving tradition just seemed to fit. Halloween is not All Saints Day. Halloween is more of a secular holiday and its traditions have developed over time.

Anyway, that is the basic history. We know that even if you got sucked into reading this article to this point, you most likely arrived at this website because you are looking for pumpkin carvings! So, throughout this website, we discuss all kinds of cool pumpkin carving templates, ideas, pumpkin carving kits, tips, patterns, painting pumpkins and everything we can think of that relates to carving pumpkins!