The Jack O’Lantern is the symbol of Halloween.

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The Jack O’Lantern is the symbol of Halloween. (BBC News)

Irish immigrants took tradition of Jack O’Lantern to America

It was said that if a demon were to encounter something as fiendish looking as themselves, they would run away in terror.

In Ireland – the tradition was to carve out turnips, but now it seems pumpkins are all the rage.

According to folklore, the Jack O’Lantern is named after a blacksmith Stingy Jack who tricked the devil into paying for his drinks.

Unable to enter heaven or hell when he died, the devil threw him a burning ember.

He was left to wander the earth carrying it about inside a turnip – or should that be a pumpkin?

Ronald Greenway grows up to 10 acres of turnips near Dungannon in County Tyrone.

Hallowe’en used to be his busiest time – but not any more.

“When I was small, I didn’t know what a pumpkin was really, so I suppose we used the next best thing, a turnip.”

Jack O’Lantern is named after a blacksmith Stingy Jack

At the Ulster American Folk Park – they have been growing pumpkins in the run-up to their Hallowe’en festival.

Irish immigrants took the tradition of the Jack O’Lantern with them to America, as Rachel Craig, an interpreter at the park explains.

“In Ireland, people cut out heads and faces of turnips and hid them in the hedgerows as a prank during Hallowe’en and they would have carried the tradition over to America.”

But when they arrived in the New World, they just could not find any turnips, so they used pumpkins instead.

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