萬圣節(jié)習俗Halloween Customs

南瓜燈Jack-o-lantern

The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.
至于南瓜燈，Jack-o-lantern，也有一個傳說，吝嗇的愛爾蘭酒鬼JACK騙魔鬼爬進了蘋果樹的樹洞，然后迅速在樹干上刻了一個神圣的十字，困住了魔鬼。JACK逼著魔鬼起誓永遠不再追索、或以任何其它方式謀取他的靈魂，才把魔鬼放了出來。然而這卻擋不住死亡的來臨。JACK死后，由于酗酒、吝嗇和欺詐，他未被允許進入天堂。而由于魔鬼的誓言，JACK也不能進入地獄。“那么我去哪里呢？”JACK不知所措地問。“哪兒來的回哪兒去！”魔鬼惡狠狠地回答。回去的路冷風四起，黑暗無邊。魔鬼從地獄之火揀了一塊燒得通紅的火炭扔給他。為了照路又不被風吹滅，JACK將火炭放進了他手里拿著的大頭菜中。JACK就這樣舉著他的“燈籠”尋找自己在地球上的存身之處。后來蘇格蘭人模仿他，挖空大頭菜，放入蠟燭做燈籠；愛爾蘭人用大頭菜也用土豆；英格蘭人則用甜菜。后來他們移民到美國，發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個更好用的燈籠──南瓜燈！這個故事其實是在告戒人們，無論什么情形，都不要和魔鬼做交易。
 

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