When you're watching your jack o'lantern glow on the porch or table this year, you might remember that the original "jack" was actually a turnip! The legend of the jack o'lantern comes from an old Irish story in which a man named Jack thrice tricked the Devil who had come to claim his soul. When Jack finally died the Devil got his due and sentenced Jack to wander the earth forever with a lantern made from a turnip. This is supposedly why you would often see eerie green light on a moon-dark night flickering in a swamp (it was actually caused by fungi which glow in the dark).
When the Irish came to America, the light in the jack o'lantern was transferred to the pumpkin. But in Great Britain turnips are still used and the classic scarecrow, like Worzel Gummidge of book and television fame, still has a head made from a large turnip.
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