jack-o'-lanterns
a lantern made from a pumpkin (Kürbislaterne)
TRANSLATION
jack-o'-lantern = die Kürbislaterne
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
How to make a jack o'lantern.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/features/halloween/pumpkin.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/features/halloween/pumpkin.shtml
Did you
know?
jack-o'-lantern
1. A lantern made from a hollowed pumpkin with a carved face, usually displayed on Halloween.
2. ignis fatuus. A phosphorescent light that hovers or flits over swampy ground at night, possibly caused by spontaneous combustion of gases emitted by rotting organic matter. Also called friar's lantern, will-o'-the-wisp, wisp.
[From earlier Jack-with-a-lantern, man with a lantern, will-o'-the-wisp.]
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionJack O'Lantern
Jack O'Lanterns have been part of Halloween for hundreds of years in both the U.S. and Great Britain, where our familiar "pumpkin lanterns" are often made from large turnips. Halloween itself is a very, very old holiday. Originally, October 31st was the last day of the old Celtic calendar, and was thought to be the night when witches, warlocks and demons roamed the Earth and the spirits of the dead returned to the land of the living. With the coming of Christianity to Britain, October 31st became known as All Hallows Eve, the night before All Saints (also known as "All Hallows," or holy persons) Day, November 1st. But the old pagan traditions, including "trick or treating" and pumpkin or turnip lanterns, were retained and integrated into the new holiday, and "Hallows Eve" eventually was slurred to "Halloween."
The name "Jack O'Lantern" is not nearly as old as Halloween and originally had nothing to do with the holiday. "Jack O'Lantern" was a 17th century term for a night watchman, so called because he carried a lantern on his rounds. The term was also applied to "will-o'-the-wisps," the strange lights sometimes seen in swamps and graveyards at night, based on the belief that the lights seen were the lanterns carried by spectral watchmen making their ghostly rounds. With such a spooky history, it's not surprising that Jack O'Lanterns became a fixture, and emblem, of Halloween.
Evan Morris
1. A lantern made from a hollowed pumpkin with a carved face, usually displayed on Halloween.
2. ignis fatuus. A phosphorescent light that hovers or flits over swampy ground at night, possibly caused by spontaneous combustion of gases emitted by rotting organic matter. Also called friar's lantern, will-o'-the-wisp, wisp.
[From earlier Jack-with-a-lantern, man with a lantern, will-o'-the-wisp.]
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionJack O'Lantern
Jack O'Lanterns have been part of Halloween for hundreds of years in both the U.S. and Great Britain, where our familiar "pumpkin lanterns" are often made from large turnips. Halloween itself is a very, very old holiday. Originally, October 31st was the last day of the old Celtic calendar, and was thought to be the night when witches, warlocks and demons roamed the Earth and the spirits of the dead returned to the land of the living. With the coming of Christianity to Britain, October 31st became known as All Hallows Eve, the night before All Saints (also known as "All Hallows," or holy persons) Day, November 1st. But the old pagan traditions, including "trick or treating" and pumpkin or turnip lanterns, were retained and integrated into the new holiday, and "Hallows Eve" eventually was slurred to "Halloween."
The name "Jack O'Lantern" is not nearly as old as Halloween and originally had nothing to do with the holiday. "Jack O'Lantern" was a 17th century term for a night watchman, so called because he carried a lantern on his rounds. The term was also applied to "will-o'-the-wisps," the strange lights sometimes seen in swamps and graveyards at night, based on the belief that the lights seen were the lanterns carried by spectral watchmen making their ghostly rounds. With such a spooky history, it's not surprising that Jack O'Lanterns became a fixture, and emblem, of Halloween.
Evan Morris
