How did "Jack O'Lantern" get it's name? - 富士市の英会話スクール-HARIOイングリッシュスクール

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2020.10.16

How did “Jack O’Lantern” get it’s name?

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Hello everyone,

It’s getting very spooky in here. If you dare to venture in to Hario this week, prepare for some big scares. That’s because our Halloween decorations are up! There are only two weeks left until Halloween, so everything is looking scary here. You’ll find plenty of black cats, witches, ghosts, jack o’lanterns, vampires, bats, spiders, and more. How many can you find? I think the most common decoration here is the jack o’lantern. It’s a strange name for a pumpkin with a face carved on it. Where did the name come from? It comes from the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who bargains with the Devil and as a result can’t go to heaven or hell when he dies. He has to walk around Earth as a ghost with only a hollowed turnip to light his way. He becomes known as “Jack of the lantern” or “Jack O’Lantern”. Having an “O'” as the beginning of a last name is common in Ireland. For example O’Connor, O’Neill, O’Hara etc. I noticed Ohara is a last name in Japan too. It is short for “son of”, from long ago when last names began being used. Jack o’lanterns were also a way of protecting one’s home against the undead. Superstitious people used them to ward off vampires. This is because the jack o’lantern’s light was a way of identifying vampires who, once their identity was known, would give up their hunt for you. Over the years people would carve faces into the pumpkins to make them scary for Halloween. Now, they are the main symbol of Halloween all over the world. Orange and purple are the most popular colours during the time because of this. I’m looking forward to our special Halloween week starting on Monday October 26th. We’ll all be wearing costumes, so our students should wear one too. They always have such great ideas!

Alan