020: Jack O' Lanterns and Samhain: A look at How Folk Lore and Tradition Have Shaped Our Halloween Tradtions

Hello! In todays episode, I take a look at how we got our modern day Jack O' Lanters. From legends such as Stingy Jack to children carving faces into turnips (horrifying), Jack O' Lanters can be traced back to the UK, Ireland, Scotland, and Whales. Upon their arrival to the US, turnips were traded out for Pumpkins and the rest is history. We can also trace many of our halloween tradtions back to ancient celtic tradtion of Samhain (Sow-wen). Dressing up in costume as well as the day for halloween itself both come from this celebration.  Sources for today's episode include: PBS, History.com, Carnegi museum of natural history, and irishmyths.com. I would like to really shout out Irish Mysths.com as they provided a treasure trove of detail for this episode. If you would like to send me any questions, comments, or ideas for future podcast episodes please email me at [email protected]. You can also find me on Intagram and Threads @itsahistorypodcast Thank you for listening!