So, this scary looking yoke is the original carved pumpkin… better known today as a Jack-o’-lantern.
Halloween begin life as an ancient Irish festival where the dead would come back to the world of the living for one night only. But where did they get this belief?

Well, around the same time every year, the wild mushrooms that grow in Ireland go through a chemical change making them “magic mushrooms”.
The people, seeing ghosts and ghouls now walking the streets due to the hallucinations they were experiencing.

To keep them away from the home, they places a carved turnip at their doorstep, the face of the turnip was the face of a man known in Irish folklore as Stingy Jack.

Stingy Jack was a bit of a con artist and a messer.
One night after Jack was telling of his misdemeanours while drinking with friends, whilst walking home he came across a body lying in the street.

When he turned the body around, he instantly recognised the face as Satan’s.

To cut a long story short, Jack tricked Satan 3 times into not taking his life.

When he eventually did die 10 years later, neither Satan nor God wanted jacks soul.

He was left to roam the world as a spirit.

Putting him outside the door warned off other spirits as they did not want to be tricked by Jack.

Fast forward through the years and as the Irish move in large numbers to America, they keep the tradition.

But there aren’t many Turnips in America. So instead they begin using pumpkins.

Then, as it was an Irish thing to do, the others in America begin calling Jacks face a “Jack-o’-lantern”.
The “O” being placed there to go with the tradition of Irish surnames.