The roots of Halloween go back well more than a thousand years. The ancient Druids held a festival called Samhain for the harvest and the beginning of winter darkness. After the introduction of Christianity, Samhain eventually transformed into our Halloween, and the name Samhain itself became synonymous with the Devil, who many thought would bring back dead spirits to roam the land. (The worst of these would become cats!)

The Druids lit great fires and performed other activities to ward off the evil spirits. This observance, combined with remnants of some old Roman festivals, has come down to us as Halloween . The name Halloween comes from "All Hallows Eve," since in A.D. 835 the Catholic Church made November 1 a church holiday, "All Hallows," to honor the saints.

Old Turnip Face One story holds that an Irishman named Jack tricked the Devil into never claiming his soul. Now Jack had a long-standing relationship with the "spirits" of grain, and his antics under their influence got him barred from heaven as well. Doomed to wander forever in darkness, Jack pleaded to the Devil for a light. The Devil threw a burning coal at Jack, who then carried it in a hollowed out turnip. This, according to some, was the first "Jack-o’-lantern."

Other Irish people, when telling this story at Halloween, carved out large turnips and cut grotesque faces into them. Apparently they hoped to ward off the evil spirits, ghosts and banshees so feared at this time. When Halloween arrived in America with European settlers, the turnip was abandoned in favor of a much larger and better suited vegetable, the pumpkin.

Today, the pumpkin fruit is one of the largest if not the largest vegetable in the world. I recently heard of one that had weighed in at more than 1000 pounds! Imagine all those Thanksgiving pies! It has always seemed a shame to me to see pumpkins, all squashed and rotten in the days following Halloween. In my opinion, pumpkins should be treated with more respect.

Pumpkins and squashes are members of the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. They are relatives of the gourd, and more distantly related to watermelons and cucumbers, which were known in the Old World. Actually there are several squashes often called pumpkins, but here in North America it is the orange, Halloween and Thanksgiving variety that bears the title.

A Golden Oldie Pumpkins and squashes are natives of the "New World," unknown in the Old World before the arrival of Europeans. By some accounts, pumpkins originated in Mexico or Central America, or from a wild, drought resistant variety called Cucurbita andreana which grew on the plains of Argentina.

The wild variety bore a large number of dark green, bitter fruit only about 3 inches across. Cultivation of the occasional less bitter mutants eventually led to the large orange variety we know today.

In terms of economic value, pumpkins probably can’t compare to other American originals such as beans, corn (maize), tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or even pineapple. But pumpkins may rank among the oldest cultivated vegetables. It appears that early American Indians cultivated pumpkins as long as 5000 years ago.

So when you carve your Jack-o’-lantern this year, remember that the pumpkin is more than just a scary face or an ingredient for holiday desserts. It really has nothing to do with the Old World tradition with which we associate it.

The pumpkin rightfully should have far more significance. It is the result of thousands of years of careful agricultural research and development, a gift to the world from the early horticulturists of America.

This article Copyright © 2004 Larry Sessions. All rights reserved.