Halloween Myths and Legends

BAY COUNTY, FL - Today is the 31st of October 2025. It’s the first and last Halloween of the year. Well, that’s a given. It’s a time to dress up in our scariest costumes and go out to collect candy. What could be more fun!?

Well, not necessarily for all. Some say Halloween is a way of worshiping the Devil. And it’s true, there are a lot of skeletal costumes, Jack-O’-Lanterns and witches’ hats used in the seasonal celebrations. But the question remains: Is Halloween truly the Devil’s Day?

Here is a short history of our Jack-O’-Lantern as my wife read it to me from AI. (But first let me say that a Jack-O’-Lantern was originally the dude who went around London streets lighting the nighttime street lanterns which they used the same way we have electric streetlights, today.)

There was once a very greedy Irishman… very greedy! His name was Jack, but folks called him “Stingy Jack” due to his reputation of pinching pennies till they cried out in pain. Stingy Jack was stingy, and wily. He was so wily that twice he escaped the Devils snare of death by tricking the Devil, and the second time he made the Devil promise Stingy Jack would never suffer the consequence of the afterlife in hell.  

Stingy Jack grew old and died. But he had been so stingy that God would not let him in heaven. In desperation Stingy Jack went to the Devil and begged asylum in hell, but the Devil was also disgusted with Stingy Jack. So, the Devil kept his promise to Stingy Jack and refused him admittance into hell. Stingy Jack said “How will I see my way? So, the Devil gave him a live coal to carry to see his way.  Stingy Jack put the coal in a carved turnip as a lantern. Then Stingy Jack’s spirit began to wander the Irish nights and wail his self-made desolation.

Mothers and Nana’s decided that this was too much and created a deterrent to ward off Stingy Jack’s mournful spirit. Hollowing out their own turnips, leaving only the outer skin, they carved scary faces into the turnip skin to ward off Stingy Jack’s spirit. When the Irish came to America, they found pumpkins much easier to work with and bigger, to be better at scaring off Stingy Jack. That is the story of Stingy Jack (and the reason why pumpkins are so popular today as a Halloween icon).

Dia De Los Muertos is a celebration honoring our dead, and sometimes includes October 31, but is typically November 1st and 2nd. This is one of the legends of Halloween, also.

Another religious observance is All Saints Day, which is November 1st, and October 31 (part of the celebration) is All Hallows Eve (Halloween) which is like Christmas Eve, a religiously oriented event. All Saints Day honors all those persons who have been designated as Saints, and some take it a bit farther to honor all our dead.

I’m sorry, folks, but I simply cannot conclude that Halloween has anything to do with the Devil at all, except, perhaps, to ward him off. So, enjoy our very Americanized holiday, tonight, Halloween. Thanks to the Irish and many Christian religions, we can have fun and celebrate without fear of participating in anything other than good, clean fun! Happy Halloween!!!