Why are pumpkins involved in Halloween?

Answer 1

The reason people put pumpkins out on Halloween started a long time ago. People believed vampires and mythical creatures were real and were going to "haunt" them. Myths say that vampires and mythical creatures such as werewolves hated the smell of pumpkin and got scared of the jack-o-latterns on them, so people put pumpkins out on Haloween to keep away the vampires and other mythical creatures.

Answer 2

The Jack-o-lantern is the festival light for Halloween and is the ancient symbol of a damned soul. Originally the Irish would carve out turnips or beets as lanterns as representations of the souls of the dead or goblins freed from the dead. When the Irish emigrated to America they could not find many turnips to carve into Jack O'Lanterns but they did find an abundance of pumpkins.

Pumpkins were cut with faces representing demons and was originally intended to frighten away evil spirits. It was said that if a demon or such were to encounter something as fiendish looking as themselves that they'd run away in terror, thus sparing the house dwellers from the ravages of dark entities.

Answer 3

The custom of jack o'lanterns (carved faces on hollowed-out pumpkins) comes from the carving of turnips to make small lanterns. Sometimes they were used to scare people at night. They were carried by alms-seekers on All Hallow's Eve (Halloween).

It wasn't until Irish immigrants brought the custom of carving Jack o'Lanterns to North America that pumpkins came to be used for that purpose. By the late 19th century, pumpkin carving became a regular part of Halloween, along with the use of the pulp to make pumpkin pies.

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Answer 4

Pumpkins are used in Halloween because when the Irish came to the colonies they didn't find the turnips they used in Ireland for "Jack'O Lantern's" so they began to use pumpkins. The carved turnips are used as lanterns because of the story that Jack of the Lanteran was condemned by the Devil to walk the earth.

Answer 5

People carve pumpkins so the spirits will stay away and they will not get hurt! Happy Halloween! You can also use the inside for pumpkin pie. Traditional turnips were carved but when the tradition came to the new world pumpkins were substituted because they were plentiful and turnips were not.

Answer 6

You use it to scare people. Traditionally such carved lamps were used to ward off evil spirits.

Answer 7

To protect oneself from Jack on All Hallows Eve, jack-o-lanterns were placed on porches and in windows, in hopes that Jack would take the light if needed instead of bothering anyone