My least favourite piece of Samhain fakelore is the american Stingy Jack story that they use to charter pumpkin carving. A stereotype of Irishness – a drunken, superstitious coward meets the devil one night. He gambles and loses then irritates the devil so much he wont have the Irish person in hell and leaves him walking the earth with a lamp.

Samhain fakelore: Where stingy jack comes from

Stingy Jack is a corruption of a genuine folk story called “Jackie the lantern” that charters the Irish analogue of the belief in the Will o the wisp – that the bog gas we see at night is actually a guiding spirit who can either save you or stray you.

The longer form versions are a morality tale about how a leading a good secular life doesnt mean you’ll have a good afterlife. The stereotype of Irish people isn’t there and Jack is a blacksmith who is saved from the devil by making 3 good wishes.

Eddie Lenihan has the best version of the story in his collection “The devil is an Irishman.” If you’ve a few euro spare and want to encourage Irish culture get that book. The link here is to a small Irish bookshop and its a 10er.

Samhain fakelore: the pumpkin a symbol of anti Irish bias?

In the american version Stingy Jack is still a morality tale, it dichotemises Irish catholics with the dominant american White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) and has the former come to a bad end to reinforce their conservative values.

Replacing the a will-o-the-whisp with the pumpkin allows American culture to reinforce its values annually. By displaying a negative trope of demonic paganism and assigning it to the foil of WASP culture – Irish culture.