I love halloween and all the traditions around it. Every year we carve pumpkins and see who can make the scariest face. Once they are carved, they are called Jack-o-lanterns. Tradition has it, that the reason we carve scary faces into pumpkins (or other vegetables) is to scare away Jack, who is an evil spirit.

The legend started in Ireland, there was a man called Jack who tricked the devil and therefore wasn’t allowed into Heaven of Hell. When he died, his spirit was left to wander the earth, so people started carving scary faces to keep him away.

Originally the faces were carved in turnips or potatoes, but during the 1800’s Irish emigrants who moved to America where they discovered that pumpkins where much easier to carve.