Scary Story Stars
Jack-O-Lanterns also found their way from folk tales to full-on literature fairly quickly, most famously as the alternate head of one famously headless horseman. Despite the general unwieldiness of a pumpkin as an ersatz head, it seemed that the ghastly galloper was a bit of a sucker for aesthetics. Personally, I might just go for a regular skull, since it seems a whole lot lighter and less likely to attract raccoons, but maybe that’s why I’m not a specter of legend.
Related: 30 Facts About Scary Movies Based On True Stories
High-Society Spooks
So when did glowing grins become mainstream halloween decor? Some historians point to a Halloween party thrown by Atlanta’s mayor in 1892. His wife (or more likely, her help) carved a wealth of candle-bearing pumpkin people and set them all around the manor, and it was an immediate hit.
Nowadays, the pumpkin, and specifically the jack-o-lantern, might be the single most pervasive piece of Halloween iconography there is. The outer flesh and inner darkness of these decorations even seems to have lent their hues to the generally accepted official colorway of Halloween, orange and black.
Pictures of babies done up like fat little pumpkins hoover in instagram likes, and the candy gathered by many children every year is invariably dumped into jack-o-lantern shaped plastic buckets. These might demonstrate our societal love for the Jack-O-Lantern most of all, as they are possibly one of the most infuriating and unwieldy containers ever created, but somehow remain relevant through pure force of nostalgia.
Jack-O-Lanterns are used as a sign of candy-ready houses, and competitions for the most impressive pumpkin creations abound in fairs and on television airwaves. Looking at little turnip ghouls, who would have thought they’d eventually take the throne as the king of Halloween?
Top Image: Public Domain/rannṗáirtí anaiṫnid