텝스 독해특강_할로윈의 기원 배경지식_Jack's lantern: from Irish legend to halloween tradition

[evas]

온라인 도서관에서 모은 자료입니다. 참고하세요.

Jack's lantern: from Irish legend to halloween tradition. Anne Renaud; Morgan Powell.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2002 Skipping Stones

Have you ever wondered why we carve pumpkins and not pineapples for Halloween celebrations? Why are carved pumpkins called "jack-o-lanterns?"

According to an old Irish legend, there once lived a mean, stingy and deceitful man named Jack. One night after too much to drink at his favorite inn, Jack's soul began to slip from his worn-out body, and the Devil appeared to claim his condemned spirit. In no hurry to follow the Devil into hell, Jack suggested they have one last drink together before setting off on their journey. True to his stingy nature, Jack claimed he had no money and convinced the Devil to change into a six-pence with which he would buy the drinks. The Devil complied and transformed himself into a coin. Jack snatched up the coin and put it in his change purse which had a silver clasp in the shape of a cross. The cross prevented the Devil from getting out and changing back to his original form. Jack then made the Devil promise to leave him alone for a year in exchange for his release. The Devil agreed, and Jack freed him.

A year went by, and one night while hurrying home along a country road, Jack met up with the Devil once again. Jack still had no intention of following the Devil into hell, and coming upon a large apple tree heavy with red, juicy apples, he convinced the Devil to pick one. Climbing up onto Jack's shoulders, the Devil shimmied up the tree then swung himself onto a branch in search of the biggest apple he could find. As soon as the Devil was high above ground, Jack carved the sign of the cross in the tree bark so the Devil could not come down. Furious at his predicament, the Devil promised he would not bother Jack for his soul for 10 years. But Jack was much more clever than the Devil, or so he thought. Instead Jack made the Devil promise to never claim his soul. In desperation the Devil agreed.

Before another year was up Jack died, and his soul needed a place to go. He was turned away from the gates of heaven because of his mean ways. Jack made his way to hell where he was met by the Devil who cried, "Go away! You tricked me into promising never to claim your soul, and I must keep my word."

"But where shall I go?" asked Jack.

"From where you came," answered the Devil. And in a final gesture, the Devil threw him a live coal from the fires of hell, which Jack placed in a turnip. Jack and his lantern have roamed the Earth looking for a place to rest ever since.

Back in the 18th century, people in Ireland, England and Scotland would hollow out beets, potatoes and turnips to use as lanterns. At Halloween they would carve scary faces into their lanterns and place them in windows or near doors to frighten away wandering evil spirits. After the great Irish immigration, which followed the potato famine in the 1840s, Halloween became a nationally observed holiday in the United States. It was also during that time that immigrants, who brought the carved lantern tradition to North America, discovered that pumpkins were not only the ideal shape and size to make jack-o-lanterns but were much easier to carve than turnips or beets.

--Anne Renaud, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.