Every year, families and friends head to pumpkin patches to pick out pumpkins to turn into Jack-o-lanterns.

The practice of carving Jack-o-lanterns originated from an Irish myth about a man known as “Stingy Jack.”   

According to the myth, Jack, the town drunk, invited the devil to have a drink with him. But keeping true to his name, Jack was “stingy” and did not want to pay for the drinks.

He convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin, so he could use the coin to pay.

However, Jack did not use the coin to pay the tab. Instead, he put the coin in his pocket next to a silver a cross, which prevented the devil from returning to his original form.

Jack eventually freed the devil, under the condition that the devil would protect his soul for a year, and when he died, the devil would not claim his soul.

However, after that year passed, Jack again tricked the devil into protecting him for an additional 10 years.

Once Jack died, neither God nor the devil wanted him. The devil, keeping his promise of not claiming his soul, punished Jack for his trickery by sending him into the night with only a burning coal to light his way.

As legend tells, Jack put the coal into a carved out turnip and still roams the Earth today.

The Irish began referring to him as “Jack of the Lantern,” now known as “Jack O’ Lantern” or “Jack-o-lantern.”

In Ireland and Scotland, people, suspicious of the evils of the underworld, filled their doorways and windows with carved turnips and potatoes to keep “Stingy Jack” and other spirits away.  

When the Irish and Scots immigrated to America in the 1800s, they brought their tradition with them.

However, they carved faces into pumpkins, which are indigenous to the Western Hemisphere.  

Now, adults and children rush to pumpkin patches to find the biggest pumpkin to carve.

Some students like sophomore Conner Sherline have also taken up the tradition.

 “This year I picked the biggest pumpkin in the batch,” Sherline said.

However, junior JoJo Shipp advises that when picking out a pumpkin, one should pay particular attention to the shape of the pumpkin, not necessarily the size.

“I got a really long and thin pumpkin this year, so my final product looked like he was screaming and being stretched out,” Shipp said.