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Reddit turnip jack o lantern2/18/2024 The devil presents him with one glowing coal, which Jack places in a hollow turnip and heads off to wander Earth for eternity. Turnips in particular make an appearance in the Irish legend of “ Stingy Jack,” in which a man named Jack cons the devil a couple times and gets punished by being outlawed from both heaven and hell. Would a ghost be scared of this? / Culture Vannin, Flickr // Public Domain “Over time people started to carve faces and designs to allow light to shine through the holes without extinguishing the ember.” “Metal lanterns were quite expensive, so people would hollow out root vegetables,” Nathan Mannion, senior curator at Dublin’s EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, told National Geographic. And since some of those spirits were less than benevolent, people tried to keep them at bay by etching scary expressions into freshly harvested turnips and other root vegetables, like potatoes and beets.Īs Smithsonian reports, repelling potentially nefarious specters wasn’t the only reason you might be inclined to gut a spud and give it a face. But back when Halloween was barely a twinkle in the eye of its parent holiday-the ancient Celtic festival Samhain-a different vegetable took center stage: the turnip.ĭuring Samhain, held from sunset on October 31 through November 1, it was believed that spirits were able to return to the mortal realm. Yes, it really does look like the runt of the litter.ĮDITED DAYS AFTER HALLOWEEN TO ADD THE FOLLOWING: It turns out that there is one significant advantage to turnip over pumpkin and that is that dealing with a rotting turnip is a far less squishy and icky experience than dealing with a rotting pumpkin.When it comes to ( somewhat) edible Halloween decorations, the pumpkin is the indisputable star of the show, with every other squash and gourd in a supporting role. It’s not fun, they’re not missing out on anything. This is a lot tougher than a pumpkin so if you’re inflicting a turnip Jack-o’-lantern on a child (perhaps a least favorite child who doesn’t get to enjoy a pumpkin like his or her siblings) then it’s probably best not to let them do this part (even a least favorite child shouldn’t be injured). At least, that’s how I’m explaining this lackluster effort. Of course, by the time you’ve finally managed scooping out the turnip you probably have little enthusiasm left for actually carving it. This is where you’ll scoop the turnip and it will also make for a nice steady base for your Jack-o’-lantern.Ī pumpkin is easy to scoop out, but a turnip requires real machismo. Here it is looking rather pathetic next to a pumpkin.Ĭut off the bottom of the turnip. ![]() Disappointingly the only rutabagas I could find were pathetically small. I chose a rutabaga, as we call them turnips where I’m from (the North – we’re odd) and that’s what my Dad always used when making my Jack-o’-lantern. One important advantage of using a turnip instead of a pumpkin is you’re unlikely to find that the grocery store is out of stock with turnips due to high demand. Admittedly this did make me look peculiar (well, a little more peculiar than normal) at an American pumpkin carving party, but once you explain that a turnip is the more tradition Jack-o’-lantern, your choice doesn’t seem quite so bizarre to others. ![]() ![]() So this year I decided not to carve a pumpkin, but instead relive my childhood by carving a turnip instead. Indeed, all you could be really guaranteed of finding in a northern supermarket was turnip, cabbage and gruel (no sun-dried tomatoes or humus for us), and clearly a turnip makes for a better Jack-o’-lantern than a cabbage. In the 80s the full Tesco-ization of Britain had not yet been completed, and the range of fresh produce at our local Presto supermarket was certainly lacking by today’s standards. I never had a pumpkin Jack-o’-lantern at Halloween.
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