Halloween Facts: History of the Jack O'Lantern!

If you've ever wondered where the roots of the Jack O’ Lantern come from, this story from History.com tells of the origin of the pumpkin-carving tradition, from Ireland!

People have been making jack o'lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks.

Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o'lanterns.

Cemetery Photo of the Week

In honor of it being Halloween week, today's cemetery photo comes from the ultimate American spooky tale...The Legend of Sleepy Hollow author Washington Irving!

Photo Taken at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow New York on Halloween 2007.

The Walking Dead Coming to AMC

It's about time we had a television series about zombies. The first episode is directed by Frank Darabont of The Mist and Shawshank Redemption, Executive Produced by Gale Anne Hurd of Terminator and Aliens. Based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman.

Cemetery photo of the week

Photo taken at Mountain View Cememtery, Oakland, CA in August 2009.

Cemetery Photo of the week

Photo taken at Mountain View Cemetery, Pasadena, California in March 2008.

Cemetery Photo of the week

Photo taken at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York in October 2007.

Paranormal Events at Eastern Airlines

The Tuscon Citizen released an interesting article on strange events in connection to the once bustling Eastern Airlines which closed back in 1991. Pilots, crew members, passengers, even shareholders have seen apparitions, ghosts and unexplained phenomena in conjunction to this airline. Established in 1926, the thriving Pitcairn Aviation won a government contract to deliver mail between New York and Atlanta. In 1938, the airline was purchased by a well known World War I dog fighting ace named Captain Eddie Rickenbacker with the help of a major financial backer; third generation Laurance Rockefeller.

Numerous reported events witnessed by highly credible people have no rhyme or reason to what they saw. From fireballs flying through the plane during a routine flight of EA 539, ghostly sightings of downed plane flight 401 when salvaged parts were used again for current planes in service and UFO sightings during flights.

“I was seated near the front of the passenger cabin of an all-metal airliner (Eastern Airlines Flight EA 539) on a late night flight from New York to Washington. The aircraft encountered an electrical storm during which it was enveloped in a sudden bright and loud electrical discharge (0005 h EST). Some seconds after this, a glowing sphere a little more than 20 centimeters in diameter emerged from the pilot’s cabin and passed down the aisle of the aircraft approximately 50 centimeters from me, maintaining the same height and course for the whole distance over which it could be observed.” – Physicist Richard Jennison, published in Nature, 1971

In 1993, Laurence Rockefeller and his niece Anne Bartley created the UFO Disclosure Initiative in which they submitted it to the Clinton White House calling for all UFO classified files and information from the CIA to the Air Force be declassified, including the famous Roswell UFO Incident. In 1994, the Clinton White House declassified files from the National Archives without any reference to UFO phenomena. The Air Force still denied that there was any UFO relation to the Roswell incident.

Below is an interview with Paul Davies; Arizona State University professor, cosmologist, astrobiologist and author of the book Are We Alone?: Philosophical Implications Of The Discovery Of Extraterrestrial Life. Davies is questioned about the meeting between Laurance Rockefeller and Hillary Clinton in which Rockefeller gives Clinton a copy of Paul Davies' book emphasizing Rockefeller's interest in UFOs.