Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular

Posted on November 13, 2007 | Category: Events, History, Holiday

The Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular at McCoy stadium from October 5th through the 30th featured over 150,000 pounds of pumpkins carved (just imagine how many pumpkins pies could of been made from that 75 tons of pumpkins) by a team of 30 professional pumpkins carvers[1]. The pumpkins were set up all around the stadium walkways and even in the dugouts. The theme of the Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular was around the world so the pumpkins were representative of many different countries did, but were interpreted in a rather American tradition with celebrates like Austin Powers representing the UK, and Captain Jack Sparrow (AKA Johnny Depp) representing the Caribbean. Additionally, there was a nice display representing American Patriotism, and a large water feature was amidst many other pumpkins representing the Eastern tradition, along the dugouts. Although, some of the art was noticeably dark obviously in celebration of the Halloween tradition, from which the Jack O’ Lantern originates; the overall tone was neutral for the most part, with some exceptions towards the later end of the path.

To better understand the origins of the Jack O’ Lantern we must necessarily look to the origins of Halloween (Halloween is an English word corrupted from All Hallows Eve). The modern American holiday can be traced back to the Druids and Celtics in Ireland, who celebrated Samhain. The word Samhain is often associated with the hallowtide or the entire period including All Saints day November 1^st and All Souls Day November 2^nd. The word Samhain is often said to come from Sam (summer) and Fuin (sunset, end), meaning end of summer. Although, this is a traditionally accepted meaning for Samhain, it is not entirely agreed upon, and the word Samhain may also be related to a word for assembly. Whatever the origins of Samhain, it was a celebration on or around November 1^st prior to winter.

Now, by the very nature of the seasons winter is brings death for many creatures. So with winter symbolic of death and spring symbolic of new life it becomes more clear why these traditions have been embedded in the cultures of many ancient peoples. This becomes especially evident when we consider the heavy dependence upon the return of the growing season for their existence. Hence the people would either pray to a deity or pagans may pray to a celestial body, or something for the return of the sun, and life. Interesting we can see the symbolic relation between mythological gods dying in the winter and the symbolic relationship to Christ’s death, and also we see the symbolic relationship to His resurrection in the spring. This is not by coincidence; it is God revealing His plan for humanity through nature, so that even the pagans will be without excuse.

  
Now in modern times our food supplies can be largely unaffected by a bad winter or two, although a little ice age such as those that occurs between about 1300AD to 1850AD would certainly affect our supply, however that’s another story.So, obviously the Celtics were hopefully for the return of the spring and so they made offerings and animal sacrifices to their gods or spirits, perhaps even human sacrifices. Additionally, there is speculation that there may be a god by a similar name to Samhain who is a god of the dead or a god that dies and is reborn associated with the sun and with the season. Again we see so much testimony from the sun of the Son, who is Jesus Christ. Also they would have bonfires, a word which in itself is indicative of sacrifice; deriving from the words bone and fire. The bonfires would naturally attract insects such as moths, which depend on the stars for navigation, and would then mistakenly follow the light of the fire. The insects in turn would naturally attract bats to feast on them, and so the bats would fly above the fires, from which comes the popular association of the bats with Halloween.

The legend of the Jack O’ lantern is also associated with Ireland, likely after the Christian influence, because of the heavy Biblical overlay of the tale. As the tale goes there was a certain fellow named Jack, who was somewhat of trickster, and who thought what better than to trick the ultimate trickster, the devil himself. Apparently, Jack succeeded in the tricking the devil up a tree or to turning into a sixpence (a piece of money) depending on the legend. Apparently, in the sixpence version Stingy Jack was having a drink with the devil and convinced him to turn into a sixpence to pay. Then after the devil climbed up the tree he carved a cross into the bottom, or with the sixpence tale he put the sixpence beside a silver cross. The story from here follows the same path, which is that the cross prevented the devil from changing back or climbing out of the tree so Jack forced the devil promise not to take his soul. Later when Jack eventually dies he is denied admission to heaven by Saint Peter because of his sinful life. So he goes down to hell, but the devil, having promised Jack his soul, turns him away from hell; however Jack cannot see to find his way out of hell, and so the devil gives him an ember which he puts in a turnip. Thereafter he wanders the earth, and becomes know as Jack of the lantern or Jack O’ Lantern if you say it with an Irish accent. Later when the legend comes to America, an American fruit the pumpkin is substituted for turnip.

The Church in practicing apologetics (from the Greek word apologia (απολογία)-meaning to give a defense against) had a philosophy of the time of not completely destroying the old pagan traditions, but of consecrating the traditions as Christian. So, for example, if some pagans were worshiping a tree Christians of the time were instructed not to completely destroy the tree and their practices, but instead to dedicate the tree to Christ. This is essentially the same reasoning by which the Christmas tree has come into our modern celebration of Christmas. While in principle these ideas are good, because they are less combative and seemingly more loving; they do not always work. In the case of Halloween it is hard to say how well these apologetic principals worked, especially in light of the current traditions surrounding Halloween. Many of this later showed to be too compromising, in that Christianity is an all or nothing religion, nothing can be added to it or taken from it, and pagan or polytheistic religions are more shopping mall style religions, in that they pick what they shop around and incorporate just the aspects they like the best. This works alright with nonessential doctrines, but when the core foundations of the Christian faith became compromises these practices allowed much corruption; ergo we have many modern day Halloween celebrations that reflect very little of Christianity.

The pagan practices were after all familiar, and easy, but left them fearful, conflicted inside, and without ultimate hope. However, many never really came to a full understanding of Christian beliefs and so these practices may have in fact led to a blending of Christian beliefs with pagan traditions, leading to false theological understanding of Christianity. So the churches practice at the time did not lead to sincere conversions because they comprised too much, and in doing lost the original appeal of Christianity, that of redemption solely through the work of Jesus Christ.

Additionally, this also allowed many pagans to easily turn back to their original paganism, because it was left fully intact. I know Christians have through the years come under heavy criticism for destroying the history of many native peoples by destroying their idols and converting their practices. However, most Christians have no interest in destroying the history and chronicles of real people, but sometimes certain cultural objects are too interwoven with evil pagan practices such as human sacrifice, or living in fear and submission to evil spirits, they sometimes must be destroyed to liberate the people.

We see that the paganism usually leaves people largely powerless, and unable to unite, because they do not have the power that comes from One True God, they just have an allusion to the concept, such as many modern people have a “sense of accomplishment”, but no real lasting eternal accomplishment. Conversely, monotheism is extremely powerful for good or bad. Monotheism, which stems from the Judeo-Christians heritage, has been introduced to many powerful concepts, so we see in the world today an extremely powerful monotheistic movement in Islamofascism that draws from the Christian heritage, but has perverted it. On the other hand, we see very few pagan or polytheist religions which are able to unite or build a large following and defend themselves; because they are too inclusive, and the inclusiveness allows little if any foundation on which to build a lasting heritage.

Additionally, when the core of many of these pagan practices is examined it contains much evil, though it may appear harmless on the surface. We often view the surface rituals, which usually appear relatively neutral. However, what we do not see are the many secret rituals, in which they reveal the true nature of the beliefs only to high ranking member. We see these same practices in modern Wicca and other neo-paganism groups, and in many other occults which are thriving. However, sometimes people revel occult secrets such as in the tremendously popular book The Secret, which asserts basically you are a god in your own right and can will things into existence. Though there is some true behind this belief, in that every action is rooted in a thought. The equivocations do an excellent job of eliminating the will of God from the equation, and without this part of the equation the victims of Hitler and other murders are to blame for their own victimization, because they were not thinking rightly. They were as the secret puts it on the wrong wave length. Essentially, occults sometimes present truths, but in their presentation they make many connections between many irrelevant truths.

Reference:

Popularity: 25% [?]

Share This

» Filed Under Events, History, Holiday

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website