The devilishly smiling image of Jack O’Lantern is inseparable from Halloween, but what’s the story behind it? Martin Fone explains — and discovers that the festival many complain about as an American import has been this side of the Atlantic for centuries.
Halloween, a corruption of All-Hallows’ Eve, is a glorious gallimaufry of pagan and Christian traditions. Straddling the approximate midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, October 31st…
