Oh! Fruit of boyhood! The old days recalling,
when wood grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
— “The Pumpkin,” John Greenleaf Whittier (1850)
The word “jack-o’-lantern” dates back to English folklore when it and “will-o’-the-wisp” were used to describe atmospheric lights seen by night travelers over their bogs, swamps, and marshes. Unable to come up with a rational explanation, many believed them to be either mischievous spirits of the dead or other supernatural beings.
While the origin of carving is uncertain, it is believed humans were carving gourds over 10,000 years ago and that rutabagas, potatoes, turnips, and beets were carved by the Irish for many centuries.
Carving Halloween pumpkins as a way of protecting ones home from the undead and as a means of scaring away vampires first occurred in the mid-1800’s.
Today, the popularity of pumpkins is confined to Halloween and pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving. Frey Farms, Keenes, Illinois, devotes 3,000 acres of their land in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Arkansas, West Virginia, Illinois and Indiana to the cultivation of over 5 million pumpkins. They annually sell one million of them to retail giant Walmart.
Ninety-five percent of all pumpkins raised for processing are grown in Illinois. Furthermore, 85 percent of those processed into foodstuffs are the outputs of two Illinois manufacturers – Libby’s in Morton and Seneca Foods in Princeville.
In 2006 Boston Commons, a central city park of 50 acres in Boston Ma., was illuminated by 30,128 jack o’ lanterns.
Between October 9 and November 2 visitors to Louisville’s Iroquois Park can stroll a one-fourth mile trail lit with 5,000 lanterns.
Ed Myers is an Advanced Master Gardener and a past president of both the Irvington Garden Club and the Garfield Park Master Gardener Association. He is also the steward of the Kile Oak Habitat Garden and the Benton House Historic Garden. His email address is: EMyers3670@aol.com.