According to an Irish tale, an old man named Jack was scurrying home along a country road when the devil suddenly appeared beside him. Jack knew the devil had come to claim his soul, for he had been a stingy, mean, and selfish man. As the two walked along, they came to a tree heavy with big, red apples.
«Wouldn’t an apple taste good right now?» Jack suggested to the devil.
«They’re fine looking apples, for sure,» said the devil. «But they all grow too high for me to reach.»
«Then stand on my shoulders.» Jack said. «Surely you’ll be able to reach them, then.»
So the devil climbed up onto Jack’s shoulders, swung himself onto a branch of the tree, and began picking the biggest, the reddest fruit he could find. Suddenly, Jack whipped out his pocket knife and carved the sign of the cross on the tree trunk. That made it impossible lor the devil to climb down out of the tree.
«Get me down from here,» cried the devil, «and I won’t claim your soul for ten years!»
But Jack was far too smart to fall for that. «I’ll let you down only if you promise NEVER to claim my soul,» he said. And the devil, desperate to get down, agreed.
But Jack wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. Before the next Halloween, his body wore out, and his soul needed a place to rest. He was turned back from the gates of heaven because of his stingy, mean ways on earth. When he got to hell, the devil shouted, «Go away! You tricked me into promising I’d never claim your soul. I must keep my word. You cannot enter into hell!»
«But where then shall I go?» Jack asked.
«Back from where you came,» the devil replied.
«I’ll never find my way back to earth in the dark,» Jack cried. So the devil threw him a chunk of coal from the very furnaces of hell. Jack caught the glowing ember and placed it inside a turnip he was gnawing on. He has been wandering around the earth with this first jack-o’-lantern in search of a resting place ever since!