Halloween, A History And The Legend Of Stingy Jack
By Randall Stone
Cork, Southern Ireland, October 31st, Around 250 BC.
It was a thin watery moon, peeping from behind silver trimmed clouds, that looked down upon the sleeping village that night. The surrounding forests swayed and rustled to a chill autumn breeze and somewhere in the darkness, an owl screeched to the night.
Normally, the village would be in complete darkness, the people having long retired to their cots, awaiting the first rays of dawn that would herald a brand new day. But tonight was different. Within the windows of the thatched hovels, candles burned brightly and upon the threshold of every door, foods of bread and autumn fruits were left in bowls. These were offerings, for tonight marked the end of the light and the beginning of the darkness. It was a period when the earth died, awaking only when the first gentle breath of spring melted the winter snows and ice. A time when the veil between the living and the dead was stretched to its thinnest. It marked a time when the dead could walk abroad and revisit their mortal descendants, partaking of the meagre offerings of food, left for them by every door. This was the end of October, Samhain. And with the restless shades of the dead, something darker walked. Something far worse. . .
For centuries, the 31st of October has been feared by man. The ancient Celts referred to it as Samhain, pronounced Sow-hen. It was a time when the barrier between the realm of the dead and the land of the living was at its lowest and easily crossed by the spirits of those who wished to return to their once, earthly abodes. To once again taste of the food, long remembered and sorely missed. To catch a glimpse of the loved ones they had left behind. But ancient man realised that if the dead could come through into the land of the living, then so could other things. . .darker things.
Over the hundreds of years, many traditions have grown up around what we now term,Halloween. Today it is treated as a fun celebration. An excuse for children and adults alike, to dress up in outlandish costumes, aping their favourite monsters from ghosts and witches, to movie and literary monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Werewolf, to name a few. But long ago, before the advent of gas and electric lighting, it was a time to be feared and the meagre offerings left outside were believed to hopefully, placate the spirits and prevent them from doing harm to the living. The Trick or Treating aspect of the celebration with the children, is a throwback to darker, more terrifying times.
The costumes that both adults and children dress up in, harks back to a day when people found it necessary to hide their true identities when walking abroad, in order that dark entities would not follow them home. Young men traditionally wore white gowns with veils of either white or black covering their faces. The idea was to look like a spirit in order that the darker entities would leave them alone, knowing that they could not harm the dead and it would be a waste of resources to try. Today, the threat of “Trick” by the children is largely an idle one. There is however always the risk of having your windows egged or dog poop ending up in your mail box. On the whole, I personally believe it is always better to honour the little dears with candy and sweets. Unfortunately, the days when one could casually stick one of the little beggars up the chimney and forget about them are long gone. I’m kidding…really.
The threat of “Trick” in the old days however, was very much taken more seriously. To insult a spirit by not honouring it with a gift could mean anything from a simple haunting to poltergeist activity and full blown diabolical possession.
Most of the traditions we observe during Halloween comes from Celtic belief which in turn, derives from the ancient Greeks. According to Greek mythology, Demeter was the Greek Goddess of the flora and fauna of the earth. She had a daughter of outstanding beauty by the name of Persephone and the Lord of the Underworld, Hades, upon glimpsing her, immediately fell in love with her and desired her. Conspiring with his brother Zeus, Hadeskidnapped Persephone and took her to the Underworld to be his queen.
With the help of the dark Goddess Hecate, Queen of the Night, Demeter searched the world for her daughter. Eventually, she learned of Zeus’ treachery and in her fury, she shut up the earth, refusing to let the plants bloom until her daughter was returned. Zeus allowed Demeterinto the Underworld to retrieve her daughter on the proviso that, she had not eaten of any food offered her by Hades. Always a shrewd character, Hades tricked Persephone into eating pomegranate seeds and because of this, Persephone was destined to spend the rest of eternity with her abductor in the Underworld for three months of every year. In grief and mourning, Demeter shut up the earth during this period, hence winter, a time when the earth sleeps like death.
One of the most interesting characters to come from the Halloween tradition was that ofStingy Jack, more commonly remembered as Jack ‘O’ Lantern, an abbreviation of “Jack Of The Lantern”. The word Halloween is a shortened derivative of All Hallows Eve, the wordHallows, being the ancient English name for Saints and All Saints Day traditionally falls on the 1st of November although the actual celebration of this Holy Day Of Obligation is celebrated on the first, available Sunday after the 1st.
After the Battle of Milvian Bridge in AD 312, the Eastern Roman Emperor, Constantine, legalised, for the first time, Christianity, and declared it to be the new religion of the Eastern Empire. The religion spread rapidly throughout Europe after the Council of Nicea in 325 AD and in 827, the rise of the Catholic Church began. It was always going to be difficult to preach Christ to the pagans. In order to do this, thousands of years of pagan doctrines and beliefs had to be overcome. The problem was, that many of the preachers were former pagans themselves and had only the slightest inclination of what this offshoot of the Jewish faith was about.
Some, if not all, found it difficult to abandon their old beliefs in favour of the new ones and so, one way of overcoming this was to equate the Christian saints and their powers with powers and attributes of the pagan deities and spirits. Places of pagan worship were topped by Christian churches which is why, even to this day, some of the ancient churches throughout the UK and Europe, still have ancient standing stones and monuments within the confines of their grounds. Pagan feast days were kept to the same dates but substituted by the honouring of Christian saints. In this way, the old ways were assimilated into Christianity and Samhain became All Hallows Eve which became Halloween.
No Halloween celebration is complete without the garish, grinning face of the pumpkin lantern but, the carving of the pumpkin is a relatively new addition to the Halloween celebrations and harks back to an even earlier practice, that of turnip carving. Once native to North America, the pumpkin has become synonymous with Halloween the world over but the idea of the vegetable lamp originated in Ireland around the middle of the 18th century with a different vegetable, the humble turnip and it is with this suede that the tale of Stingy Jack, or Jack ‘O’ Lantern, as he is more figuratively known, is linked.
The Tale Of Stingy Jack
Some legends tell that Jack was a blacksmith by trade while others say that he was a farmer. All agree however, that he was an extremely devious individual with all the morals of a sewer rat and that he delighted in conning his neighbours out of their hard earned cash and property and that all who knew him, went to grave lengths to avoid him. His nefarious ways earned him the nick name of “Stingy Jack”. It was always inevitable that such a devious soul was going to register on the Devil’s radar, sooner or later and that is exactly what happened. So intrigued by this roguish soul, Old Scratch himself decided to pay Jack a personal visit.
The devil appeared to Jack on a country lane one bright, summer evening and told Jack how impressed he was with him in his dodgy dealings. He told Jack that a soul of his calibre would be honoured indeed in Hell and told him that on his death, he would personally come up to collect it. Jack now had to do some quick thinking. He remarked to the devil that it must have been a long, thirsty trek on his way up from Hell and that he must be quite thirsty after his journey. He then invited his satanic majesty to the local tavern to quench his thirst and the devil readily agreed.
One drink led to another and at the end of the night the landlord demanded payment in full for the drinks. The devil said that Jack must pay as he was Jack’s invited guest but Jack admitted that he was penniless. Then, Jack had an idea. Knowing that the devil was a great shape shifter, he told him to turn into a silver coin with which to pay the landlord, stating that once the landlord had put him in the money drawer and had turned his back, he could jump out and resume his natural shape. The devil was highly delighted with this idea and acquiesced to Jack’s request. As soon as the devil had transformed himself into a gleaming, silver penny, Jack snatched him off the table and stuffed him inside his pocket where he kept a small crucifix. The crucifix countermanded the evil one’s magic and so he remained in the shape of a coin while Jack paid for the ale with money he had secreted about him.
All the way home the devil begged and pleaded with Jack to let him go and Jack eventually agreed, on the condition that the devil would not take his soul for ten years and that in that time, Jack would be wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. The devil had no choice but to agree to Jack’s terms and he returned to Hell cursing bitterly, yet nonetheless impressed at the way he’d been stung. The following decade was one of parties, drinking, gambling and women, all backed up with the incredible wealth that Jack had suddenly found himself rolling in. But all good things must come to an end and for Jack, the time simply flew by.
Jack was again wandering down a country lane in all his finest attire and seeking a tavern, as the money burnt a hole in his pockets, when the devil reappeared. Old Scratch had a look of delight on his hellish features as he rubbed his hands together. He told Jack that his decade was up and that he had come to take his soul to Hell as agreed. Jack sighed heavily and looked resigned to his fate. It just so happened however, that they stood beneath the boughs of an apple tree.
Jack looked longingly up at the sweet, green fruit hanging heavily from the branches and asked the devil for one last favour, that he might take an apple of his choice to Hell with him. The devil, thinking that this wasn’t an unreasonable request, agreed to get the apple of Jack’s choice. Jack chose one from the very top of the tree and the devil began to climb. But as he climbed to retrieve the apple, Jack, quick as a flash, carved a cross into the trunk of the tree. The devil was absolutely furious when he found that he’d been duped yet again and was unable to get down. Eventually, he had no other choice but to beg once again for his freedom.
Jack seemed to mull things over slowly as he munched upon his apple and in the end he came up with a plan. Jack agreed to obliterate the cross if the devil promised that he would never take his soul to Hell with him. The evil one had no choice but to agree and returned once more to Hell, stung and embarrassed.
Time went by and eventually after leading a life of sin and debauchery, Jack finally died. God would not allow him into heaven because of the sinful and wanton life he had lived and the devil refused him entry into Hell because of the tricks he had played on him and the promises he had extracted. When Jack replied miserably that he had nowhere to go, the devil informed him that he would have to wander the earth in darkness until Judgement Day. Jack complained that he wouldn’t be able to find his way in the dark but the devil had an answer for this. Hollowing out Jack’s favourite vegetable, a turnip, and carving a pair of eyes into it, the devil placed within it a burning coal, straight from the fires of Hell that would forever burn, and sent him on his way. And so, the story of Jack Of The Lantern began.
This story and the practice of carving out turnips for Halloween, crossed the Atlantic from Europe, with the first European settlers to the New World and carried on until it was discovered that the pumpkin made a much better lantern and was infinitely easier to cut into. But the story of the lantern goes even further back in time. The Celts were head hunters. In battle, it was common for them to take their enemies heads as war trophies.
The normal practice was to boil and strip away the flesh after first having scooped out the brain. . . to eat it.. By imbibing the flesh of another warrior, it was believed that the slain warrior’s strength, bravery and prowess would become theirs. Once the head had been reduced to a skull it was usually buried within the foundations of the hut for the Celts believed that it was within the head the spirit resided and by making the skull part of their dwelling it was believed that the dead warrior’s spirit would protect both home and residence from evil entities.
This protective spirit was called an Ankou and the tradition survived well into the Christian era. When planning a grave yard or pagan burial site, it was once common to bury a cat or a dog alive in the first grave. The spirit of the animal, because of its horrific suffering, would be so terrible to look upon that even demons, seeking to grab the souls of the dead, would be terrified by it. There is evidence however that it was not always an animal that was first interred. Sometimes, it was a human sacrifice. During Samhain, these skulls would be placed in windows with a candle inside, to ward off any evil spirit that may wander too close.
Well, that’s it, my contributions to the Halloween season. I hope it gives you an insight into one of our longest running customs, however brief. It just remains for me to hope you all have a fantastic and safe Halloween and that you don’t fill up too much with candy.
God Bless All
Randall
