Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Jack-o'-lantern

Carved pumpkins are a familiar sight at Halloween. I decided to find out the origins of the ubiquitous Jack-o'-lantern:

The story of the Jack-o'-lantern comes in many variants retold in different forms across Western Europe, with variations being present in the folklore of Norway, Sweden, England, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Italy and Spain. An old Irish folk tale from the mid-19th Century tells of Stingy Jack, a lazy yet shrewd farmer who uses a cross to trap the Devil. One story says that Jack tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree, and once he was up there Jack quickly placed crosses around the trunk or carved a cross into the bark, so that the Devil couldn't get down.

Another version of the story says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers from whom he had stolen, when he met the Devil, who claimed it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (the Devil could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin/Devil disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet, only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped.

In both folktales, Jack only lets the Devil go when he agrees never to take his soul. After a while the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, his life had been too sinful for Jack to go to heaven; however, the Devil had promised not to take his soul, and so he was barred from hell as well. Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember from the flames of hell, that would never burn out. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which were his favorite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-lantern.

Here's a traditional version:

A traditional Irish Jack-o'-Lantern in
the Museum of Country Life, Ireland
Billy and his girlfriend Sandra carved their own:



Some people go to extremes. Here are some carvings by Ray Villafane (courtesy of mrsgunka).








Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Double furry friends... (edited)

This is now an emergency edited post. The codes for the pictures went bad overnight and there were loads of blanks, nothing else!






Monday, 28 October 2013

Tip for Halloween

GrannyJ sent us this great idea for Halloween.


Thank you, GrannyJ. It looks fantastic!

Sunday, 27 October 2013

San Francisco fog

Amy sent us this incredible video. Thank you, Amy.

Saturday, 26 October 2013

Living in an egg

This is the post I was trying to put together yesterday but couldn't because my computer decided otherwise...

We watched the program Amazing Spaces on Wednesday and I was fascinated by the Exbury Egg.



This is from the site of the artist who commissioned it:

The Exbury Egg will be a temporary, energy efficient self-sustaining work space for artist Stephen Turner in the estuary of the River Beaulieu. It is a place to stay and a laboratory for studying the life of a tidal creek, a collecting and collating centre with integral storage & display areas. It will take on the patina of 730 daily tides below the water line, and 365 days of weathering by wind, rain and bleaching by the sun above.




The egg is surprisingly spacious inside and Stephen Turner seems to be having a jolly good time: