Halloween's pumpkins are DARKER than you think!
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- What is the story behind the Jack o’ Lantern? Why do we carve pumpkins on Halloween?
And why should you never follow strange lights in the woods?
Hi everybody, I'm Nick and this is Beasts of the Olde World, a channel that explores ancient folklore and mythical creatures from across the globe. If you're fascinated by the mysterious and the unseen, then make sure to subscribe and ring the bell.
In this bumper episode, we’ll deep dive into Halloween’s most iconic image: that of the Jack o’ Lantern, the carved hollowed-out pumpkin. Halloween is now a commercial celebration of all things that go bump in the night, but what do Jack o’ Lanterns, or pumpkins for that matter, have to do with what once was an incredibly important festival?
We’ll discover how Jack o’ Lantern is just one of many names for spooky ghost lights that have been reported by travellers across the globe for hundreds of years. Will o’ the Wisps, Hinkypunks, Spooklights, Fetch lights, Elf-Fires and Ignis Fatuus - are all referencing the same spooky phenomenon. These lights are most commonly seen over bogs, swamps, marshes and mires, and appear as faint, blue flickering lights, hovering close to the ground. We’ll look at the sinister reputation these ghostly flames have for luring travellers into dangerous terrain, leading many stranded in bogs and marshes.
We’ll look at the history of the term dating all the way back to the 14th century, and ask whether their inclusion in popular works such as Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1, or their discussion by Sir Isaac Newton in Opticks, lends any weight to the theory that this phenomenon is more than myth. We will also examine how the myth has made its way into more contemporary media, such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Pixar’s Brave and countless other representations in video games, such as the Elder Scrolls series.
We’ll examine the curious tradition for these ghostly lights to be referred to with a personal name such as Jack or Will, and ask whether this gives us a clue about the origins of the myth, and indicates that the belief was that these lights were controlled by an evil spirit.
We’ll tell the story of Stingy Jack and the Devil’s Bargain, as an origin story for the Jack o’ Lantern myth, and we’ll follow Jack as his cunning and trickery get the better of satan in the short term, but ultimately end up denying his soul a home in heaven or hell.
We’ll examine how these legends resonate with us emotionally, and how they act as cautionary tales expounding the dangers of false hope, naivety, and foolishness.
Having looked at all of this, we will ask once again, why this is a phenomenon that we now reference in carving and lighting pumpkins every autumn. Could these things really exist?
We’ll examine the numerous attempts at a scientific explanation of Will o’ the Wisps, from ball lightning to bioluminescent insects. We’ll look at the only detailed first hand report of Will o’ the Wisps.
Report linked here 👇👇👇
inamidst.com/li...
We’ll look at what is now broadly accepted as the best scientific explanation for Will o’ the wisps: gas bubbles, rising from rotten marshes teeming with bacteria, which under certain conditions can become spontaneously flammable.
I hope that the next time you carve your pumpkin, you remember poor Stingy Jack and his ill-fated bargaining, and that you enjoyed this deep dive into our shared mythic past and these Beasts of the Olde World. Please join us again for more mythical creature features!
00:28 PART ONE - A Wandering Fire
04:46 PART TWO (STORY SECTION) - Stingy Jack and the Devil's Bargain
11:25 PART THREE - Don't Follow the Lights...
14:05 - What does science say?
#mythicalcreatures #spooky #halloween #mythsandlegends #ancientfolklore #pumpkins #horrorstories #mythology #Jackolantern #Willothewisp #scary #folkhorror
I thought it was a hollowed out turnip with a candle in it a guy named jack used to look for his wife...or something?
There are multiple variations of the Jack o' Lantern myth so I'm sure that's the story in some parts of the world - bound to have differences when you have so many localised myths all around the world! Another variation of the Stingy Jack story is the subject of the next video, coming 26th October!
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld cool!
To Beasts of the olde world:
What is the appearance of a Boggart during the Medieval period of 10 century AD to 13 century AD?
No. Not his wife. LoL
Every version I ever heard had Stingy jack putting the coal in a TURNIP not a pumpkin.
Great catch! The original myth does involve a turnip rather than a pumpkin. Carving turnips was part of the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Irish immigrants brought this tradition to the U.S. in the 19th century, where pumpkins - being more abundant, easier to carve, (and far more marketable!) became the preferred choice.
I had initially planned to include this detail, but it didn’t make the final cut, along with a few other elements, to keep the story focused on the key takeaway: that Stingy Jack’s story is the original reference point for the modern tradition.
These details may appear in future videos, where I'll explore more aspects of this broad and extensive myth.
Thanks for pointing it out though, and thanks for watching!
I'll have a turnip spice latte please, said no one ever.
I suspect that even in wetlands that are preserved, a lower level of sewage due to septic tanks and city treatment plants, has something to do with it
Yes quite possibly!
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld I have personally seen these will'o'thewisps: we could see the brighter ones from My Dad's lawn. We knew what they were in a general sense: swamp gas
We had a marsh about a mile south of my Dad's property. My Brother owns it now. And we would see these lights when we would sleep under the stars. That was 50+ years ago. But the marsh hasn't changed much. In the winter you can find bubbles in the ice that burn
When you combine seeing them, and a night bird's cry that sounds like a scream, it makes for a fun time.
Haha yeah I can imagine!
My guy drank the Kool-Aid and actually went with “swamp gas” as the explanation. C’mon now
Now if a young Michael Myers had watched this little history lesson things might have turned out differently. 🎃 🐾
Pumpkins were not used in Ireland...Jak o Lantern was a Turnip.
Some of the big methane bubbles will explode if they have enough oxygen
But you have not explained why we make jack of lanterns
Thanks for watching! The video is focused on the historical origins of the Jack o' Lantern, particularly how Will o' the Wisps and other marshlight myths shaped the modern Halloween tradition. I also make this explicit around the 12:02 mark, if you'd like to check that part out again
@BeastsoftheOldeWorld I've watched it again, and there is no link between willow the wisp and pumpkins given.
I appreciate you watching again! The link I’m making comes most explicitly through the story of Stingy Jack, in which his soul, unfit for heaven or hell, is forced to walk the earth for eternity. At the end of this tale, Jack is given an ember from the fires of hell and places it in a pumpkin, which he uses as a lantern to light his way, thus becoming the original Jack o' Lantern. This directly connects marshlight folklore to the modern tradition of carving and lighting Jack o' Lanterns, in both name and form. I hoped that this part of the video made the connection clear, but I can see how it might have been missed. Thanks again for watching!
@@BeastsoftheOldeWorld I see no link
@@alecwithac69 I see the missing link