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In Ireland, Halloween lanterns were traditionally carved from turnips, not pumpkins. The pumpkin became the familiar American jack-o’-lantern later, as Irish immigrants carried the custom to the United States. Turnips are the best-attested Irish example, but materials varied across the British Isles, and the sources do not establish a single year when pumpkins replaced them.
What were the original jack-o’-lanterns made from?
Turnips are the clearest documented answer for Ireland. The National Museum of Ireland says people carved scary faces into turnips, put candles inside, and used the lanterns to frighten people on October 31. They could be carried or set on windowsills. The familiar pumpkin version is described by the museum as an American development of that Irish tradition: National Museum of Ireland, “Ghost turnip”.
That does not mean every early Halloween lantern was a turnip. Smithsonian reporting identifies turnips in particular, but also potatoes, radishes, and beets in some British Isles traditions: Smithsonian Magazine, “When People Carved Turnips Instead of Pumpkins for Halloween”.
What does the surviving Donegal lantern tell us?
The National Museum of Ireland’s collection record for object F1943.350 documents a turnip lantern donated in 1943 by Rois Ní Braonáin, a schoolteacher who taught near Fintown, County Donegal. She described it as the kind made locally around 1900. The object displayed by the museum is not the original vegetable: it is a plaster cast, made and painted by museum artist Eileen Barnes.
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The record is valuable evidence of a real object and a remembered local custom. It does not establish when lantern carving first began, or that the practice originated in Fintown. Smithsonian quotes Clodagh Doyle, Keeper of the National Museum of Ireland’s Irish Folklife Division, explaining that the lantern was donated because “nobody was making this type of lantern anymore,” though the tradition was remembered in the area: Smithsonian Magazine.
Why did pumpkins become the familiar Halloween lantern?
The broad change is clear: Irish immigrants brought the lantern tradition to the United States, where pumpkins became the preferred material. Ireland.ie gives a practical explanation—pumpkins were easier to carve—while the National Museum of Ireland describes the pumpkin as an American development of the Irish custom. The sources do not provide an exact year or a detailed chronology for the shift, so it is more accurate to describe an adaptation than a single moment of replacement: Ireland.ie, “6 Halloween traditions that come from Ireland’s Samhain festival”.
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| Tradition | Region | Material | What the sources establish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Older Irish lantern examples | Ireland | Turnips | The National Museum of Ireland describes carved, candle-lit turnips used at Halloween. |
| Other reported British Isles examples | Some parts of the British Isles | Turnips, potatoes, radishes, or beets | Smithsonian reporting notes material varied by place. |
| Familiar modern form | United States | Pumpkins | The museum calls the pumpkin an American development; Ireland.ie says pumpkins were easier to carve. |
How does the lantern connect to Samhain and Stingy Jack?
The National Museum of Ireland places Halloween on October 31, the eve of Samhain on November 1, and includes carved turnips among the traditions associated with the season: “Ghost turnip” and “Ghost turnips, the púca, fortune-telling and evil abductions…”. Accounts linking the lantern to Stingy Jack are folklore, not a securely documented origin event. Both the museum and the Library of Congress present the story as a legend or tradition rather than verified history: Library of Congress, “The Origins of Halloween Traditions”.
For a glimpse of the pumpkin custom in the United States, the Library of Congress also points to an October 24, 1915 New York Tribune headline about jack-o’-lanterns in “pumpkin country.” That reference shows pumpkins were part of American Halloween imagery by that date; it does not fix when they first became common.
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