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Characteristic carved and candlelit Halloween pumpkin started life as a turnip in Ireland

The jack-o'-lantern - hollowed out pumpkin with a face cut into it and a candle inside  - is the most famous figure associated with   Halloween.

Every Halloween night, people across the United States decorate their threshold with a homemade jack-o'-lantern.  The tradition is said to come from a famous Irish folk tale.

Once upon a time, Jack, an Irish blacksmith notorious for being a drunkard and a trickster,  came across the Devil in a pub on Halloween night.

Jack tricked the Devil into changing himself into a coin by  offering his soul in exchange for one last drink.  Jack quickly pocketed him  and because he had a silver cross in his purse, the Devil could not change himself back.

Jack told the Devil he would not let him go unless he promised not to claim his soul for the next 10 years. The Devil agreed.

Ten years later, Jack,  ran into the  Devil again and managed to trick him again. This time Jack made the Devil promise never to   ask for his soul again.

When Jack died several years  later, he was not admitted to heaven because of his life of cheating and drinking.

When he arrived at the gates of hell, the Devil  turned him away because he had agreed not to take Jack's soul.

Jack pleaded with the Devil to at least give him a light to find his way back. The Devil  threw a piece of live coal at Jack straight from the fire of hell.

Jack put it in a turnip he was eating to stop it from being blown out in the wind.

Ever since, Jack  has been wandering in the darkness with his lantern.  Jack of the lantern   became the symbol of a damned soul.

The display of carved turnips to scare away evil spirits at Halloween remained a largely Irish practice until the Irish Potato Famine (1845-50), when more than 700,000 Irish emigrated to  the US.

The new immigrants took with them their Halloween traditions and jack-o'-lanterns.

Turnips at that time were relatively scarce in the New World, and they found the pumpkin to be a good  alternative. Soon the jack-o'-lantern  became the hollowed-out pumpkin lit with a candle  which we are familiar with today.



Jack-o'-lantern, symbol of the lost soul in Irish folklore, goes west