Why Keeping Halloween Traditions Is Important

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Why is carving a pumpkin so important for Halloween? Halloween is a holiday celebrated by America every year on October 31st. Most Halloween traditions include decorating a home with skeletons, witches, bats and pumpkins. You may have attended a Halloween party, where you dress up in costume or have gone trick or treating. Pumpkin carving has been a wonderful family tradition celebrated for generations on Halloween. My Great Grandmother, Mary Darragh, brought the tradition with her over from Ireland and passed it along or our family to share from generation to generation.

In my family, it was important to know the legend behind the Jack O’Lantern. Coming from an Irish and Scottish background, traditions and legends in our family are what we love best. My Great Grandmother shared this story with her daughter and it has been passed down ever since. I feel that this is necessary to know why you’re performing these traditions and what it symbolizes.

The carving of pumpkins is one of the most important Halloween traditions. Pumpkin carving is founded on the story about “Stingy Jack.” Irish legend states that Stingy Jack invited the Devil for a drink. Of course, Jack did not wish to pay for the drinks. They didn’t call him Stingy Jack for nothing! He played a trick on the Devil and convinced him to turn into a coin so that he may pay for their drinks. When the Devil did this, Jack picked up the coin and placed it in his shirt pocket covering it with a silver cross. The cross prevented the Devil from returning to his normal form. After some time, Jack freed the Devil, with the understanding that the Devil could never claim his soul and would leave Jack in peace for one year. After a year, the Devil returned to Jack...

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...th us in life. We always choose to see them in a positive way. Focusing on the good they accomplished and their deeds performed. How knowing them has helped us or changed us in some way for the better.

I’ve never really looked at our Halloween Festivities as a process. Going back through it now, I can see the importance of every detail and the reasoning behind it. I find it utterly amazing that our family has been able to continue these traditions, since moving here from Ireland so many years ago. How the generations of family members, whether how close, like living in the same town, or how far, like living out state, continue these traditions with their own families. Family traditions are extremely important. They mold us into the people we are and whether we realize it or not, we continue to honor our loved ones past by continuing on their traditions.

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