Richt Tumshie Heid


Richt Tumshie Heid

Originally shared by Dirk Puehl

“There is a great deal more to be got out of things than is generally got out of them, whether the thing be a chapter of the Bible or a yellow turnip“ (George MacDonald)

Once upon a time a smith called Jack Oldfield struck a deal with the devil. And when his time had come, he tricked Old Nick three times to let him go for a while, but his last stunt banned Jack from entering Heaven and Hell as well and the lost soul was condemned to wander the netherworlds for all eternity. The fiend took pity, though, gave Jack a glowing lump of coal, once used to heat the fires down below, for a bit of light and warmth on the way and Jack put the glowing coal in a hollowed out turnip and was known as Jack of the Lantern, Jack O’ Lantern, ever since.

Whether the old Jack O’Lanterns made of turnips, known as rutabagas to the Irish or Rübengeister in the German-speaking countries, represented the spirits loose on All Hallow’s Eve or were used to ward them off, is somehow lost in history. And in most places across the globe they were displaced by pumpkins anyway. However, my friend Trey Pitsenberger made me aware of a current pumpkin shortage in the UK that made people revert to use turnips for making Jack O’Lanterns. Since both pumpkins my daughter and I had hollowed out last weekend rotted away, we made a turnip Jack O’Lantern today as well. Not quite as patinatedly frightening as the old Irish rutabagas, but still useful for lighting the #wunderkammer’s foyer on All Hallow’s Eve and make you, dear visitors marvel and wonder at the magical abilities of forgotten turnips

Trey’s post with additional information about pumpkins, turnips and Jack O’Lanterns can be found here:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+TreyPitsenberger/posts/Xnyjxxd1ZRy

And more about Jack Oldfield and Halloween on:

http://wunderkammertales.blogspot.de/2015/02/all-hallows-eve.html

#halloween #folklore #wunderkammer

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