The last day of October is known to the whole world as Halloween, and it is hard to imagine without such an attribute as a luminous pumpkin with cut out eyes and mouth. At the same time, few people know why you can not do without this props. Today you will learn about how it happened that it was a pumpkin that began to symbolize this holiday.
What is Halloween pumpkin called?
In the form in which we know the pumpkin for Halloween, it first appeared in 1837 - then there was a written mention of its name, and since 1866 the holiday was not celebrated without it. The typical pumpkin lamp, in which the monster’s face is cut out and a candle is inserted on Halloween, is Jack's Lamp (or Lantern) (in English Jack of the Lantern or abbreviated Jack-o-lantern).
History and Description
It was customary for the Celtic peoples (the ancient ancestors of the Irish and Scots) to leave lanterns to the dead to help them find their way to purgatory, illuminating the path. Once such a lantern had to be made for the soul of a blacksmith, whose name was Jack. There is a legend that a long time ago in Ireland there lived a blacksmith named Jack Stingy, who often attached to the bottle and at the same time was stingy. One day he met with Satan himself and offered him a drink together.
Important! It is believed that if you put a pumpkin lantern near the house on the night of October 31 to November 1, when the souls of the dead fall from the other world into ours, they will be able to find their way back, and the evil spirits roaming around that day will get scared and leave.
To pay for the drink, Jack asked the unclean to turn into money, and he put them in his pocket, in which there was already a silver cross, as a result, the evil one could not get out of his pocket. For his freedom, he gave Jack a year of life without his tricks and promised that he would not take his soul to hell after death. This was not enough for Jack, and he soon asked the devil to help pick fruit from the tree. When he climbed up, the blacksmith drew a cross on the trunk. In exchange, Jack bargained for himself 10 years of life without the intervention of the evil one.
However, it turned out that the blacksmith outwitted himself. When his health could not stand such an amount of alcohol, Satan kept his word and did not take his soul to hell. But the soul, who sinned a lot during his lifetime, turned out to be unworthy of paradise. So Jack began to wander around the world, no one needed. The devil gave him a smoldering coal so that he could see where he was going. Putting a piece of coal in a pumpkin so as not to burn her hands, the soul of a blacksmith went to wandering, waiting for the Day of Judgment.
Did you know? Earlier in Ukraine, they handed the pumpkin when they wanted to refuse the bridegroom who came to marry. And among the Slavic tribes they prepared dishes from it when they wanted the house to have no quarrels.
Why did pumpkin become a symbol of Halloween?
The Celts used heads carved from large vegetables in various ceremonies. These people believed in the transmigration of souls after death, and they also believed that the human soul lives in the head, so the heads of the enemies were necessarily cut off and stored at home as trophies so that they would not come to life. When they first started celebrating Halloween, Jack's lamps were carved from vegetables such as turnips or rutabaga.
In the USA, it was more difficult for immigrants from the Old World to get these vegetables, and pumpkin was a cheap product and grew in abundance in many households, which is why it began to be used for lamps. Prior to this, the pumpkin simply symbolized the end of the harvest. In the twentieth century, it began to be used to create lamps in other countries.
Other attributes and essence of Halloween
Halloween in English is also referred to as All Hallows' Eve, All Hallowed Souls Eve, All-Hallows-Even and All Saints' Eve, translated as "All Saints' Evening." Over time, the Scottish name Hallowin supplanted the rest. Another interpretation - the holiday was named in honor of the German-Scandinavian goddess of death Hel. Halloween is celebrated on October 31, on the eve of All Saints Day according to the Catholic church calendar. The first written mention of the holiday dates back to 1556.
Important! The essence of Halloween is to scare away evil or to hide from it, disguised as evil spirits with the help of a costume.
Having originated in Ireland and Scotland, it gradually spread to Great Britain, the United States and spread to related states (Japan, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, the Pacific Islands), and more recently, fell in love with residents of other countries of Europe and the former USSR. It is believed that the predecessor of this holiday was Samhain, translated - “end of summer”, as the Irish called November.
In addition, the Celts did not associate this day with evil spirits, but was the final day of harvesting. On this day, part of the cattle was slaughtered in order to feed in the winter, they were guessing on the future on its bones. The remaining cattle were held between high bonfires to clear, and people jumped through the fire. Samhain was perceived as a holiday of veneration of the dead already after the adoption of Christianity. Probably, in this way Christian monks wanted to share pagan celebration and All Saints Day, which is celebrated on November 1.
Did you know? In the United States, revenues from the sale of Halloween-themed costumes total about $ 5 billion.
In addition to the pumpkin head, the symbols of Halloween are:
- Costumes - this night it is customary to dress up in the costumes of monsters, fairies, witches and other invented characters. This custom appeared around the sixteenth century, and then people wore fabric masks on their faces. And from the end of the 19th century, fancy dresses also appeared.
- Sweets - at first, in order to receive money or food from the owner of the house, it was necessary to somehow entertain him. “Trick-or-treat” - a phrase that is pronounced for this, roughly translates as “trick or treat”.
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- The color is preferably black or orange.
- Home decoration is all that is associated with autumn.
- Music - popular tunes from various horror films.
- Noisy parties that also scare away evil spirits.
- Fortunetelling.
- Attractions - walks in various kinds of haunted houses.
- Dishes from apples, pumpkins, corn, honey, sometimes in conjunction with fortune-telling (rings hidden inside, peas, coins and other objects mean different options for changes in life).
In conclusion, I would like to note that Halloween, with its rich history and well-recognized symbolism in the form of a pumpkin, has long been a part of the culture of Western countries, and in recent years more and more attention has been paid to it in post-Soviet countries. Try and you make the Jack Lamp - perhaps, thanks to you, someone's soul will find the way and find peace. And if you do not believe in otherworldly forces, then you can feel like a part of the cultural traditions of other countries.
