Carved Turnips facts

While investigating facts about Carved Turnips For Halloween and Carved Turnips Samhain, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Jack O'Lanterns got their name from the myth about Jack who tricked the devil into not claiming his soul, however he was also denied entrance to heaven. The devil gave Jack one burning piece of coal that he carried in a carved out turnip as he roamed the earth for eternity.

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Long before pumpkin carving became popular, Celtic people in Ireland were carving turnips and lighting them with embers, to ward off evil spirits. This Celtic custom is the historical root of Halloween pumpkin carving.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 13 of the best facts about Carved Turnips Ireland and Irish Carved Turnips I managed to collect.

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1. Jack o'lanterns were originally carved from turnips not pumpkins

2. Jack O'Lanterns started in 18th century Ireland and were originally carved into turnips. These turnips were used to ward away the evil spirit of a blacksmith named Jack. When the Irish came to America, turnips were hard to find, but pumpkins weren't, and thus the pumpkin carving became tradition

3. During Celtic-era 'Halloween' in Ireland, turnips would be carved and used as lanterns, which gave rise to our modern practice of carving jack-o-lanterns.

4. The term 'Jack O' Lantern' was originally a nickname for strange lights seen over peat bogs in the 1600s, which many mistook to be ghosts or fairies. It wasn't until people started carving turnips in the 1800s that the term got its modern meaning.

5. In parts of Germany and Switzerland it is popular to carve root vegetables like turnips, sugar beets and mangelwurzels into scary faces ("Rübengeister") before Lent as part of "Fasnacht"

6. People originally carved faces in turnips, until we discovered pumpkins in the new world, which are a lot easier to carve

7. Jack-o-Lanterns were not originally pumpkins. The tradition started in Ireland, where they carved faces into turnips and potatoes based on of the legend of stingy jack. It spread to the British Isles, where they also used beets, and then to America.

8. People used to carve turnips before pumpkins.

9. Turnips used to be carved instead of Pumpkins and Gourds thousands of years before that.

What is true about carved turnips?

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