
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Long before pumpkins lit American porches, eerie turnips glowed across Irish hillsides, carved to ward off spirits during Samhain and inspired by the legend of Stingy Jack, the trickster doomed to wander the Earth with a single ember from Hell. As Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, they found the pumpkin—larger, softer, and perfectly suited for carving—and the Jack-O’-Lantern was reborn. Over centuries, this symbol of fear transformed into one of community, harvest, and Halloween cheer, its flickering light carrying echoes of ancient superstition beneath its modern smile. Even today, every glowing pumpkin honors the ghostly traveler whose cursed light first shone across the Irish bogs.
Episode Sources:
https://www.theirishjewelrycompany.com/blog/post/the-origins-and-superstitions-of-the-jack-olantern-in-irish-tradition?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=13177453168&gbraid=0AAAAAD9dF0mxHMnpTkHjaDqZNwOlvaWc1&gclid=CjwKCAjw3tzHBhBREiwAlMJoUorOXiOPP3Ebu1fiUbtICkUZNt5MP6biSNMrQ6xyD1ZsVws4SF5iyxoCKFAQAvD_BwE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack-o%27-lantern
https://www.history.com/articles/history-of-the-jack-o-lantern-irish-origins
https://carnegiemnh.org/the-jack-o-lanterns-origins/
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/17/nx-s1-5576485/from-folklore-to-your-front-porch-the-history-of-the-jack-o-lantern
By Mysterious Pacific Northwest4.8
2222 ratings
Long before pumpkins lit American porches, eerie turnips glowed across Irish hillsides, carved to ward off spirits during Samhain and inspired by the legend of Stingy Jack, the trickster doomed to wander the Earth with a single ember from Hell. As Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, they found the pumpkin—larger, softer, and perfectly suited for carving—and the Jack-O’-Lantern was reborn. Over centuries, this symbol of fear transformed into one of community, harvest, and Halloween cheer, its flickering light carrying echoes of ancient superstition beneath its modern smile. Even today, every glowing pumpkin honors the ghostly traveler whose cursed light first shone across the Irish bogs.
Episode Sources:
https://www.theirishjewelrycompany.com/blog/post/the-origins-and-superstitions-of-the-jack-olantern-in-irish-tradition?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=13177453168&gbraid=0AAAAAD9dF0mxHMnpTkHjaDqZNwOlvaWc1&gclid=CjwKCAjw3tzHBhBREiwAlMJoUorOXiOPP3Ebu1fiUbtICkUZNt5MP6biSNMrQ6xyD1ZsVws4SF5iyxoCKFAQAvD_BwE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack-o%27-lantern
https://www.history.com/articles/history-of-the-jack-o-lantern-irish-origins
https://carnegiemnh.org/the-jack-o-lanterns-origins/
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/17/nx-s1-5576485/from-folklore-to-your-front-porch-the-history-of-the-jack-o-lantern

34,461 Listeners

109 Listeners

15,336 Listeners

4,779 Listeners

7,691 Listeners

16,711 Listeners

368,681 Listeners

23,037 Listeners

8,590 Listeners

17,817 Listeners

985 Listeners

430 Listeners

7,988 Listeners

5,500 Listeners

11,449 Listeners