Did you know
Before pumpkins, there were turnips
The pumpkin on your step this week is a stand-in. The first jack-o'-lantern was a turnip, and it did not look happy about it.
Conner KadziolkaUpdated 2 min read
The pumpkin on your front step this week is a stand-in. The first jack-o'-lanterns were turnips, and I only found that out because the turnip was our ingredient of the week.
An AI dug most of this up with us, and we checked every bit of it against the sources at the bottom. In Ireland, Scotland and other Celtic places, people carved turnips more often than pumpkins, right into the early 1900s. A metal lantern cost money and a turnip didn't, so they hollowed one out and cut a face in it, which let the light out without snuffing the ember inside.
in short
Yes. The first jack-o'-lanterns were turnips and other root vegetables, carved in Ireland and Scotland because metal lanterns cost money, and the pumpkin took over once the custom crossed to North America. BetterDay puts pickled turnip in its Halifax Hero bowls.
The name came before the vegetable
"Jack-o'-lantern" first meant a night watchman, because any man you didn't know was a Jack. It also meant the will-o'-the-wisp, the flickering light over a bog. Then came the Irish tale of Stingy Jack, who tricked the devil twice, got turned away from heaven and from hell, and has wandered ever since with an ember in a hollowed turnip.
1800s
Ireland and Scotland
Turnips, potatoes, beets and mangelwurzels all get carved faces.
1820
Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving's headless horseman throws a pumpkin, still uncarved.
1867
Harper's Weekly
Probably the first printed picture of a pumpkin jack-o'-lantern.
1930s
Ireland
Electricity reaches the countryside and the old stories fade.
Irish families who came to North America found pumpkins far easier to carve, and the turnip lost the job. Canadians get a twist of their own, because here, in Scotland and in Ireland "turnip" can also mean the big yellow rutabaga, so some of those old lanterns were rutabagas.
The turnip is still in disguise
Last week turnip roasted in our Root & Roast Beef Stew. This week it's pickled, in the Halifax Hero Donair Bowl and its plant-based twin. It's the pink pickle you know from a shawarma plate, and pickled turnip usually gets that colour from a slice of beet in the jar.
AvailablePlant-BasedSources
- 1Smithsonian, Turnip carving in Ireland, the cost of metal lanterns and the ghost turnip
- 2National Geographic, The night watchman, Stingy Jack, Sleepy Hollow, Harper's Weekly and the 1930s
- 3IrishCentral, Mangelwurzels and other carved roots
- 4Wikipedia, Rutabaga, Turnip as a name for rutabaga, and rutabaga lanterns
- 5Alpha Foodie, Beet turns pickled turnip pink
On the menu this week
Entrées
Halifax Hero Donair Bowl
Your go-to 2:00 AM classic, reimagined the Betterday way. Tender marinated beef, thinly shaved and served over golden shawarma-spiced rice, mixed with punchy pickled turnip, pickles, tomatoes, and sweet onions, served with creamy tzatziki potatoes & sweet garlic sauce.
On this week’s menu
Entrées
Halifax Hero Veggie Donair Bowl
Your go-to 2:00 AM classic, reimagined the Betterday way. Roasted shawarma soy curls served over golden shawarma-spiced rice, topped with punchy pickled turnip, pickles, tomatoes, and sweet onions, served with creamy tzatziki potatoes and sweet garlic sauce.
On this week’s menu
Read next
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Rather not cook tonight?