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.
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 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.