Jack O'Lanterns have always been a part of the the halloween tradition, in some form of another. But Pumpkins are a fairly recent edition, and we go back to the Irish to find out why. People traditionally carved faces into hollowed-out turnips and potatoes to scare away spirits, but as the Irish potato famine of 1846 devastated potato and turnip crops and as immigrants were forced to move to the U.S.A due to lack of food and recession, people began carving the more common and cheap gourde Pumpkins that were plentiful in North America. The tradition still stands and pumpkins are used today.
