The first Jack O’Lanterns were carved from Turnips (or arguably rutabagas)
According to legend, Jack was a wicked man, who managed to cheat the devil himself, and as a result, Satan agreed that he would never take Jack’s soul to hell.
However, being such a wicked man, when he died, Jack found himself unable to gain entry to heaven. He pleaded with the devil to take him, but he reminded Jack that per their agreement, he could not take him to hell, and so with nowhere else to go, Jack would be doomed to wander the earth for all eternity.
Jack asked the devil to at least give him a lantern to light his way, and the devil tossed Jack a burning coal, which jack stuck inside of the turnip he had been eating when he died to use as a makeshift lantern.
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When my wife and I first moved in together, we had a small apartment without much room on our patio for Jack O’Lanterns. Undeterred, I went back to the original concept and started carving turnips, which fit much better on the outside of our windowsill.
To hollow them out I use a forstner bit that’s a little bigger than the LED tea lights I stick in them.
I think they have a lot more character and are a lot creepier than pumpkins.
Samhain is one of the festivals that mark the wheel of the year. It’s the third harvest festival when gourds and root vegetables were harvested.
As a cross-quarter festival it is a thin time when the boundary between our world and the other world is easily crossed.
You might be visited by your relatives who passed so you would light their way with lanterns made with gourds and turnips. You’d set a place at the table for them as well.
All of this devil bullshit is the church demonizing Celtic traditions.
We have the annual nightly childrens turnip lantern march around this time here (northern Switzerland), with evergreens and pumpkin laterns decorated wells and singing. So this is where it comes from?
You bet. Samhain is midway between Mabon (equinox) and Yule (solstice) so it was widely observed among Celtic and Germanic peoples.
Christians love to make pagan traditions into either something about evil or something about their god.
I’ll be lighting candles for my loved ones this Saturday
We call them a Tumshie in Scotland! And looking good indeed. I like to use an ice cream scoop for mine, and a wee serated sharp knife - watch those fingers!
I’m curious how common they are in Scotland, is it still something that a lot of people do or is it more of a niche thing for eccentric history buffs like myself?
Also, I may be wrong, but I think the turnips you have in Scotland are more like what we usually call a rutabaga, so they’re a bit bigger. I did actually do a rutabaga lantern one year and carved it all out by hand to have the experience, it came out well but made me appreciate how fast it is hollowing out my little turnips with a drill.
Unfortunately I forgot to take any picture of that one so it’s lost to the ages.
Definitely rarer. Pumpkins are probably 95% of what is carved, maybe more! And yes, naming of a neep, a turnip, a rutabaga, a swede! Is a cultural thing. It’s a neep to me, a teuchtar
Räbeliechtli here, Switzerland.
When I moved to Scotland from Canada I had no idea what a turnip/neep fucking looks like. Imagine my surprise (and my wife’s amusement) when I bought the wrong thing home for Burn’s night…🤦
Love the smell of these when they’re lit. Brings back memories.
My sleep deprived mind thought that said trump o’lanterns and I was trting to figure out how you grew such wide carrots.
Although most people go for pumpkins now carving turnips is the traditional way in Scotland. They’re so much harder to carve though!
Yeah, after doing these for a few years you definitely get to appreciate how convenient pumpkins are.
My forstner bit method does make it goes a lot faster though. The first time I did it I think I used a spoon and a pocket knife and it was slow-going.
Those are sick! I’ve been wanting to do this myself since I learned the history a while back.
If you’re into weird creepy historical stuff, I learned it from a podcast that I can recommend to very few people but you may be one, it’s called Bone And Sickle and the episode is “Pumpkins, Turnips, and Spooklights.”
Why the simple green?
Is a forstner bit like a hole saw?
The simple green is because I was cleaning some stuff outside earlier in the day and forgot to bring it in
The picture the other commenter linked does show a forstner bit.
A lot of them do have teeth around the edge sort of like a hole saw, but not all of them
The main thing is that they scrape away material from the center of the hole, while a hole saw just cuts around the circumference. If I used a hole saw I’d have been left with a cylinder of turnip still stuck to the top unless I cut all the way through, a forstner bit removes all of the material
I love these so much. Like, kittens riding on the backs of puppies levels of adorable.
Got a dremel and have wondered about using it to carve out a turnip. Would probably want one of the large power carving bits, not sure what its like carving things with loads of moisture inside. Pretty sure I remember reading its better to use the flex shaft so you don’t risk getting moisture inside the motor.
My dremel has a persistent dusty orange coating. Veggies are quite wet when the bit is spinning at 15,000rpm. I’m not truly worried about the spray shorting anything due to the heat of the motor, but everything will probably get coated, including your face. Safety glasses are a must. To be fair, I use the wood carving disc (gold diamond crust) to do shaping and thinning, so the linear speed is higher at the edge. I’ve also never handled a turnip, so you’re meterage may vary. A lot.
Don’t have it but want to get that wood disc. But there are loads that I want and aware that I shouldn’t just buy all of them.
At some point I think I should buy proper wood boards to work with. Want to make a board game - game of Ur can be carved onto a simple plank, then decorate each square with a carved shape or pattern. Coasters are another one.
Been drawing patterns lately, one I quite like is a cat with a herring bone repeating background that I hope would come out nicely as a line carving.
