Every October, Koa sees glowing pumpkin faces in windows and wonders: who carved the very first one? The answer is older, odder and a lot more turnip-shaped than you might think. Here is the short story of the jack-o'-lantern, plus a tiny study trick it inspired.
Before pumpkins, there were turnips
Long before pumpkins, people in Ireland and Scotland carved faces into turnips and potatoes, and in England into large beets. The carved vegetables were put in windows or by the door around the old Celtic festival of Samhain (31 October into 1 November) to keep wandering spirits away.
If you ever visit the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life in County Mayo, you can see a plaster cast of a carved "ghost turnip" from the early 1900s. Koa thinks it looks far spookier than any pumpkin.
Who was Stingy Jack?
The name comes from an Irish folktale, usually dated to the 18th century. Stingy Jack tricked the Devil twice, and when Jack finally died, neither heaven nor hell would take him. So he was sent off into the dark night with only a burning coal inside a hollowed-out turnip to light his way. People called him "Jack of the Lantern", which became jack-o'-lantern.
The word itself is even older: in 17th-century Britain, "Jack" was a name for any unknown man, and a night watchman carrying a lamp could be called "Jack-of-the-Lantern". The name was also used for the flickering marsh lights better known as will-o'-the-wisps.
How the pumpkin took over
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Irish immigrants brought the custom to North America. There they found pumpkins, which are native to the Americas and much easier to carve than a rock-hard turnip. Writers picked it up too: in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1852 story "Feathertop", a scarecrow has a carved pumpkin for a head. The rest is glowing orange history.
Koa's jack-o'-lantern study trick
Stingy Jack had one small light to get through a very long night. That's a surprisingly good study plan for dark October evenings:
- One lantern at a time. Pick a single task for your next focus block. Not the whole chapter, just the next small step.
- Light it, then let it rest. Work for 25 minutes and take a real 5-minute break. The free study timer on pinkoa.com counts for you.
- Carve a face for every block. Draw a tiny pumpkin in the margin after each session. Four pumpkins in a row? That's a whole pumpkin patch, and time for a longer break.
- Cosy, not scary. A warm lamp, a hot drink and a calm screen help a lot. Koa's pink phone and desktop wallpapers are now free, so your phone can at least look friendly while it sits face-down.
Looking for more free printables and goodies? They all live in Koa's new Free Downloads corner.
Shade of the day
No. 18: Thulian (#DE6FA1), a warm pink with a hint of purple. It pairs with turquoise, lilac and mint, and it makes a very cute pumpkin doodle in the margin.
Koa's launch month is still on: code KOA20 takes 20% off until 25 October.
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