This legend has so many legends within legends that it can be hard to sort them all out. But the basic premise depicts an old Irish farmer, Jack, playing tricks on the devil and then all sorts of completely unrealistic conversations happened between Jack, the devil and God. This resulted in Jack being barred from both heaven
... and hell and wandering earth as a single flame housed inside carved vegetables. Yeah, believable, huh? Really though, folks believed that carving scary faces onto turnips would frighten away evil spirits. The tradition turned to pumpkins in America because pumpkins were more plentiful, and, let’s face it, far easier to carve. MORE