Now You Know Jack

So where, exactly, did the "jack" in "jack-o'-lantern" come from? Irish legend has it that a ne'er-do-well named Drunk Jack or Stingy Jack makes a deal with the Devil. He offers up his soul in exchange for payment of his rather sizeable pub tab. When the Devil shows up to take Jack's soul, as part of the bargain struck, Jack tricks the Devil by making him climb a tree. Jack then carves a cross underneath, which the Devil will not cross, in order to climb down. In exchange for removing the cross, the Devil forgives Jack's debt, and Jack gets to retain his soul. However, when he dies, Jack is not eligible to enter Heaven, so is obliged to journey down to Hell and ask the Devil for a place there. The Devil denies him entrance in revenge, but gives Jack an ember from the fires of Hell to light his way through the twilight world to which lost souls are forever condemned. Jack places it in a carved turnip to serve as his lantern. He is thereafter known as "Jack of the Lantern."  And long after the Irish (and English, Welch and Scots) first started using turnips, cabbage roots and rutabagas for jack-o’-lanterns, Americans in the New World started carving up pumpkins, instead, because they were larger, easier to carve and more plentiful.