Origin of the Jack O' Lantern

What would October be without Jack-O-Lanterns? Holiday celebrations are incomplete without pumpkins with twisted expressions and glowing eyes. Traditional carved pumpkins present a head with perfectly triangular cut eyes and a nose, the mouth, a crooked crescent smile typically dances between menacing and oafish. The harvest would be nothing without this icon. A carved pumpkin, in ways, is a symbol that rises above witches on broomsticks and dancing skeletons. The history of the Jack-O-Lantern is long and predates most of the traditions that we celebrate on Halloween/Samhain. The twisted expression on a carved pumpkins face, in legend, is there to ward off spirits who for one night roam the earth with malicious intentions, although the true historical relevance for our modern Jack-O-Lantern rests with the flame inside.

Will-o'-the Wisp, Arthur Hughes

Ghostly apparitions and unusual lights have been documented all over the world as early as the middle ages. One particular phenomena known as Ignis Fatuus (Medieval Latin for: The Foolish Fire), more popularly Will-O-The-Wisp appears as a ball of light, sometimes a dancing flame over water but most traditionally found in bogs and marshes. It recedes if approached, drawing travelers into unknown territory and sometimes towards a dark precipice. The Will-O-The-Wisp is related to faeries and depending on the region is known to be a trickster. When regarded as a death omen and found in graveyards it is known to be called corpse-candle or dead-candle. Most popularly in English folk belief and European Folklore it is called: hobby-lantern (Worcestershire, Hertfordshire, East Anglia, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and west Wales), friar's lantern (Wales), jenny-burnt-tail (Oxfordshire), jack-o'-lantern (Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire).

Alan Lee, Faeries, 1978

Will-O-The-Wisp comes form "wisp", which is an old world bundle of sticks used as a torch. Will refers to he that holds it, "Will-of-the-torch". This idea holds up to Jack-of-the-lantern or jenny-with-the-lantern, each etymological references to figures with lanterns and lights. Paranormal enthusiasts refer them as orbs. In ancient folk-tales told in Wales, England, Ireland and Scotland protagonists named Will or Jack are doomed to hunt through the marshes for the unobtainable orb. The most popular name Jack comes from an old tale in Ireland in which Jack is referred to as Stingy Jack or Drunk Jack. Drunk Jack makes a bargain with the devil by offering his soul in exchange for a bar tab. Thereafter Jack coaxes the devil into climbing a tree and then carves a cross on the bark below. The devil forgives Jack's debt in exchange for his freedom. Because of his malicious behavior Jack is debarred from heaven and after a great amount of time asks for a place in hell. The devil denies him but as an aid offers an ember to light his way through the twilight world where lost souls are condemned. Jack takes the ember and places it within a carved turnip to use as a lantern. Thus Jack-o'-the-lantern.  

Marc Dalessio

Will-O-The-Wisp is seen with various tricksters in folklore such as Puck or Robin Goodfellow and the Phooka. The Púca in Irish lore is known for to help or hinder a figure, sometimes leading them to their demise.

Arthur Rackham, 1905

"Various legends account for Ignus Fatuus. Sometimes it is thought to be a tricksy BOGGART, and where it is called 'Hobbley's lantern', this is plainly so; sometimes ghostly in origin, a soul for some sin could not rest. For instance, a man who had moved his neighbors landmarks would be doomed to haunt the area with a flickering light. In Shropshire, Will the Smith, after being given a second spell of life by St. Peter, spent it in such wickedness that he was debarred both from Heaven and Hell. The most the Devil would do for him was to give him a piece of burning pit coal to warm himself, with which he flickers over boggy ground to allure poor wanders to their death. In other versions of the tale, the smith tricks the Devil into a steel purse, in which he so hammers him that the Devil dare not admit him into Hell, but in this version the smith tricks his way into Heaven. In Lincolnshire fen country, the WILL O' THE WYKES are Bogles, intent on nothing but evil." ---Katherine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies

Will O The Wisp, Tom Shropshire

The Will-O-The-Wisp are not unlike Pixies, a type of faerie creature who is known to mislead travelers. They are known for their pranks, often leading humans into the deep and dangerous faerie realm. In old world Europe it was a dangerous thing to be Pixie-led: an expression of leading humans astray. J. M. Barrie the author of Peter Pan must have combined elements of the pixie with the Will-O-The-Wisp when creating Tinker Bell for her most definitive attribute is her light.

There was in every hollow

A hundred wry mouthed wisps.

---Dafydd ap Gwilym (trans. Wirt Sikes) 1340

Brian Froud, Pinterest

The Will-O-The-Wisp is not unknown to science, Sir Isaac Newton mentions them in his 1704 opus Opticks. Researchers have developed mundane explanations for their existence basing the occurrence on marsh gasses, methane, formed from rotting vegetation and ignited by phosphene. The gas in these circumstances is thought to ignite spontaneously establishing a floating flame. The sightings have often been associated to ball lightning. Though science may try to explain faeries, the truth is that the Will-O-The-Wisp is quite unobtainable. The phenomena of the Will-O-The-Wisp has all but diminished and in the last 100 years sightings have become less frequent. Perhaps the over-developed world has swept away bogs and marshes, the very landscapes in which they are found or perhaps they tradition and superstition evolved for there continue to be documented cases for mysterious lights in the sky. 

Source Material:

• An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, Katherine Briggs, Pantheon Books, New York 1976
• More English Fairy Tales, Collected by Joseph Jacobs, Dover Publications, New York 1967
• mysteriousbritain.co.uk
• inamidst.com
• wikipedia.com
• pitt.edu
• merriam-webster.com

The Scarecrow

Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Paramount Pictures 1999

The Scarecrow is a global figure tied to nearly every culture, it stands out historically as an image synonymous with agriculture and harvest. There has never been a comprehensive study on the history of these figures, although the mere image can be viewed and examined anthropologically as their presence has been known to society for quite sometime. Some of the earliest Scarecrows are known to have been placed along the Nile River by ancient Egyptians most distinctively to ward off flocks of quail, who were considered a major pest to crop fields. Ancient Greece had a festival for Priapus, the son of the god Dionysus and and goddess Aphrodite. Priapus was honored as the guardian of vegetation, gardens and livestock, a symbol for health and fertility mostly honored in gardens and homes. Wooden figures of Priapus were built and placed among crops as guardians of agriculture. He was painted purple with a club in one hand to scare the birds and a sickle in the other as a symbol for hopeful harvest.

18th Century Icelandic Manuscript

Ancient images of the Norse god Odin with his two ravens Huginn and Muninn are thought to be early inspirations for the Scarecrow. In Germany Scarecrows were crafted into witches whose flailing arms cast curses against those who dared to invade their territory. Early German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania in the 1800's were among the first to tie red handkerchiefs to their mannequins in an effort to humanize them, they called them "Bootzamon" whose english translation is Bogeyman. Bogey stems from Bogie which in ancient folklore is name given to one of the most mischievous and frightening creatures, whose sole delight is in the torment of mankind, this figure is attached to the Unseelie Court (a grouping of malevolent creatures/ faeries in Celtic lore. This is perhaps the birth of the popular dark figure of the bogeyman.)

Pumpkinrot.com

Before stick men, children were labored in Medieval Europe to scare birds away from crops by clapping together large wooden sticks. After the Great Plague adults took the job, guarding their crops by hiding in straw-huts in a much similar fashion to the Native Americans. Much later when farms grew considerably larger this was the advent of the earliest effigies, who could stand guard a field without using man-power.

Arnaud de Vallois 2010

Known as perhaps the very first field 'gods' or guards is the Japanese "kakashi", representations of the Japanese deity Kuebiko (the Shinto kami/ god of knowledge and agriculture,) who is unable to walk yet holds all the wisdom of the world. The kakashi, very similar to ancient Greece's wooden Priapus, were crafted with old rags, bells and sticks. They would subsequently be mounted on poles then set on fire, the flames and the smell would keep birds and small animals away. The word kakashi literally translates to "something stinky". Some schools of thought believe that Japanese farmers would utilize the kakashi by attaching spoiled meats and vegetables, and this anthropologically might be the birth of the the image of a scarecrow with a pumpkin-head. There are many names for the scarecrow around the world: To the Scottish he is Tattie Bogle, in Sommerset, England he is known as Mommet. In Berkshire, Isle of Wight he called Hodmedod which translates to "with hat and stick". In Bengali it is kaktadua, pugalo to Russia and straska to the Czech's.

Etching by Jim Yarbrough

Some occult thought tie the scarecrow to deeper historic symbolism. The scarecrow's soul purpose is to frighten and it is nearly impossible to look upon the figure without noticing the cross. The cross is synonymous with Jesus Christ and was used by the likes of Vlad the Impaler who had a propensity for impaling and displaying his enemies to ward off others. Subsequently the scarecrow is also seen as a warning and a symbol for "no trespassing".

D.C. Comics 

Straw-men and Scarecrows are seen throughout classic and modern mythology.  The Scarecrow also known as Jonathan Crane in D.C. Comics is one of Batman's most powerful and popular enemies.

Turnip-Head is a cursed Scarecrow who appears in both the film and the novel titled: Howl's Moving Castle, in the novel he is just known as the Scarecrow. He is definitely an homage to kakashi. He is fashioned upon two cross-bound poles and has a withering turnip for a head. In the film Turnip-Head is revealed to be a prince who suffered an enchantment but is restored by the main character Sophie when his heart is placed back within his chest. This is not unlike the most famous Scarecrow from Oz.  

Howl's Moving Castle, Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures 2004

It would be impossible to contemplate scarecrows and not draw your thoughts to Ray Bolger in the 1939 Classic film The Wizard of Oz. This depiction of the Scarecrow balances out the darker history that the figure once represented. The Scarecrow, along with the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion are benevolent staples among the pages of fairy tales and children's minds.

Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, MGM Pictures 1939

The irony behind the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz rests with it's creator L. Frank Baum, who once stated that he had reoccurring nightmares as a child, in which he was being chased by a scarecrow. The development of the figure in his story was established to help him rearrange his fear and he unintentionally did this same for the rest of the world.

John R. Neill 1929

L. Frank Baum wrote into his second Oz novel titled: The Marvelous Land of Oz a character named Jack Pumpkinhead. Jack Pumpkinhead is a play on early European scarecrows who were known as Jack-of-straw. Jack is closer to a traditional scarecrow as he is crafted with wooden sticks and a large Jack-O-Lantern for a head. He was designed by a boy named Tip as a prank on the old witch Mombie. Jack Pumpkinhead becomes quite close to the Scarecrow and eventually a highly regarded citizen in the land of Oz.

Jack Pumpkinhead as seen in Disney's Return to Oz 1985

Jack Pumpkinhead is surely the inspiration for Tim Burton's Jack in the 1993 film: The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, Touchstone Pictures 1993

Burton's Jack is the Pumpkin King and the leader of Halloween Town. Jack, in a way, represents the strong evolution of the scarecrow and and his perpetual ties to autumn and Halloween.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, Touchstone Pictures 1993 

Source Material:

• An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Katherine Briggs, Pantheon Books, New York, N. Y. 1976
• The Annotated Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, Michael Patrick Hearn, W. W. Norton & Co Inc, 2000
• The Marvelous Land of Oz, L. Frank Baum, Dover Publications Inc. New York, N.Y. 1969
• wikipedia.com
• dicitonary.reference.com
• howlscastle.wikia.com
• paganwiccan.about.com
• pumpkinrot.com
• scarecrowland.co.uk/history
• modernfarmer.com