Why Do We Carve Pumpkins?
When I saw this question I had no idea what the answer would be, why do we carve pumpkins for Halloween?
There are many traditions in this country and many are adopted from other areas and cultures. Now the reason we carve pumpkins come from the European times and area, as we are a country started having many immigrants. Reading an article on tasteofhome.com about the history and it all comes back to "Stingy Jack".
As folklore has it, from what I gather "Stingy Jack" was a clever town drunk who met Satan one fateful night. Jack convinced the devil to buy him a drink by turning himself into a coin and letting Jack use him to pay for the drink. Well he pocketed the coin and put it next to a silver cross and the Devil was locked there until he promised to not takes Jack's soul. Then he convinced Satan to get him some fruit from a tree, when the devil went up to get the fruit Jack carved a cross in the tree and the devil could not come down until he promised not to bother Jack for 10 years.
Shortly after that meeting Jack died, and God would not accept into heaven cause his dealings with the devil and so he sent him to Hell well the Devil keeping his promise of not bothering Jack for 10 years sent him into the woods wandering with a light in a hollowed out turnip he would roam the country side and therefore the jack of lanterns morphed into Jack-O-Lanterns.
Overtime that adaptation turned into carving pumpkins and Stingy Jack, and back then it was more scary as it had to deal with the folklore of the devil. Now they have turned to fun and cheery more than scary, a little more family friendly.