Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Sleepy History of Jack O’Lanterns

Starting point is 00:00:00 Get Sleepy is a production of Slumber Studios and is made possible thanks to the generous support of our sponsors and premium members. If you'd like to listen ad-free and access weekly bonus episodes, extra long stories and our entire back catalogue, you can try out premium free for 7 days by following the link in the episode notes. Now, a quick word from our sponsors. We all know meditation has huge benefits for our physical, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing, but I, like many people, often find it challenging to do it by myself and to get into a consistent habit of meditating. We always incorporate a little mindfulness at the beginning of our show at night, but

Starting point is 00:00:50 if you'd like to wake up to some mindfulness before your day gets going, you'll love the podcast called Morning Meditation for Women. Every morning, Katie expertly leads you through a short, powerful meditation to encourage both calmness and empowerment to take on whatever the day throws at you, and the daily episodes make it easy to stay in routine. It's a blissful way to start the day, so give the Morning Meditation for Women podcast a try, wherever you're listening now. Did you know that before Slumber Studios produced podcasts, we made apps? We have one app that is the perfect companion to get sleepy. It's called White Noise Deep Sleep Sounds.

Starting point is 00:01:41 We developed this app in-house at Slumber Studios to deliver the highest quality sleep sounds. We developed this app in-house at Slumber Studios to deliver the highest quality sleep sounds. It can help you fall asleep fast, wake up less often, improve focus, reduce anxiety, relieve tinnitus and calm babies. With over 300 sounds and a new sound released every week, you're sure to find one that suits your tastes, including a variety of fan sounds, white, brown, pink, green and other color noises, professionally recorded nature sounds, as well as a broad range of music like classical, ambient sleep music and lo-fi. As a listener of Get Sleepy, we have an exclusive offer for you. Download the White Noise Deep Sleep Sounds app now and get 30 days free

Starting point is 00:02:34 access to all of the premium content. Just go to deepsleepsounds.com slash get sleepy. That's deepsleepsounds.com slash get sleepy. Welcome to Get Sleepy, where we listen, we relax, and we get sleepy. I'm Thomas, your host, and I'm so grateful that you're here listening. It's that time of year again when our Halloween themed stories start popping up on your feeds. Halloween is a curious mixture of delightful chills and happy times. On one hand, it celebrates the mysteries our ancestors feared, raising the spectre of all things that go bump in the night. On the other hand, it provided a backdrop of celebration that coincided with the harvest, inspiring jovial acknowledgements

Starting point is 00:03:48 and a chance for neighbors to get together. It seems appropriate then that one of the most recognizable modern mascots for Halloween is the grinning pumpkin or jack-o-lantern as many have come to know them by. Tonight we'll go on a journey through history to find out where the jack-o-lantern came from. The answers will become clearer as the story takes a winding path through the years and across oceans. Thank you to Alicia Steffen for her wonderfully creative writing of this story, and to Arif for his great job of narrating it. We all know the importance of getting consistent quality sleep and how much that can improve our day-to-day lives.

Starting point is 00:04:48 So if this show helps you sleep better, why not give a Get Sleepy Premium subscription a try? With well over 750 full-length stories and meditations to choose from, our supporters get the very best listening experience on Get Sleepy Premium. There are no ads whatsoever, so your rest will be understabbed no matter how many episodes you want to listen to. Plus, every Thursday night, we release a brand new bonus episode just for our supporters. I'll be reading tomorrow's story about a lady starting a new job in a mysterious place called the Tower of Books. Give Get Sleepy Premium a try with a 7-day free trial to begin. Visit GetSleepy.com slash

Starting point is 00:05:42 support or follow the link in the show notes to learn more. Thanks so much my friends. So now, make sure you're nice and comfortable in your bed. Take a deep breath, slowly drawing the air in, and gently exhaling it back out. And you can just let your eyes close whenever you're ready. For the next few moments, I'd like you to think about a place that you love because it makes you feel relaxed and content. Let your mind take as much time as it wants to develop this place in your imagination. And if nothing specific comes up, that's okay, just allow your mind to melt into feelings of comfort and relaxation. A special relaxing place can be anywhere we like. A warm seaside beach.

Starting point is 00:07:13 A scenic vista with mountains all around. Maybe a woodland bursting with wildlife, and it can be even simpler than that. Many of us feel deeply relaxed when sat in our favorite coffee shop or even where you're likely listening from right now in your cozy bedroom. Just imagine yourself in that setting and appreciate the delightful sense of calm that you feel. Take note of any sights, sounds, smells, even the tastes. All of these elements come together, enhancing your relaxing experience, and you can enjoy it in your imagination whenever you want. So take one more intentional breath. And now, allow your focus to gently rest on the story a reef is about to tell.

Starting point is 00:08:53 Picture in your mind a time when the countryside was truly dark at night, and each house was lit only by a flame. A cold wind blows us in to uncover the secrets of All Hallows Eve. This is where our story begins. Picture yourself journeying from one isolated rural cottage to another, under the cover of autumn darkness. You know these country paths like the back of your hand, but there is something about the fields and the woods at this time of night, at this time of year, that makes your footing less sure. Luckily, you see your destination ahead. Luckily, you see your destination ahead. A small light flickers in the window of a house. You smile to yourself and hold your own small ember a little higher, silently grateful for

Starting point is 00:10:40 a welcoming beacon, the jack-o-lantern. Wherever you may live in the world, you may have an image in your mind that represents Halloween. Cultures across the globe have dedicated holidays that honor the proximity of the living to the dead, such as Samhain in the Celtic tradition, Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, Pitru Paksha in India, or the Festival of the Hungry Ghost in Hong Kong. Each of these celebrations and the others that are too numerous to mention have their own particular customs. That is certainly true of Halloween, which occurs annually on October 31st. It is a night widely associated in pop culture with ghosts, witches, black cats, and other types of boisterous revelry. Among those hallmarks of Halloween, perhaps more prominent than any other in the present

Starting point is 00:12:06 day, is the tradition of the Jack-o-lantern. It's fair to say that the glowing, carved pumpkin we all know, now such a celebrated fixture of Halloween celebrations was the product of the American melting pot. It took a collision of cultures, regional differences in agriculture, and hundreds of years of tradition to create the jack-o-lantern we all take for granted today. The custom of lighting a jack-o-lantern began with country dwellers carrying a simple ember to push back the darkness. But it evolved to be an icon of pop culture, representing the rockiest night of Halloween to the world. If we were to go back to the very beginning in the search of its origins,

Starting point is 00:13:16 we'd find ourselves amongst the small villages of Ireland. There's an old Irish folk tale about a man called Stingy Jack. Many variations of the story exist, and we must tell you up front that they all involve a certain lord of the underworld. But don't worry, this dark lord appears to be rather gullible and ineffective, as you'll see from this tale of how he was outwitted by an ordinary man. This is how the story goes. A man named Jack invited the devil to have a drink with him. But when it came time to pay the tab, Jack didn't want to pay, and he convinced his companion, the devil, to turn himself into a coin. to turn himself into a coin. Once that had happened, however, Jack slipped the coin into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the devil from changing himself back into his

Starting point is 00:14:38 usual form. Jack eventually freed him on the condition that he wouldn't trouble Jack for a year, and that he wouldn't claim Jack's soul when he passed away. The hapless devil stuck to his end of the bargain, but when he returned a year later, he was tricked again. Jack convinced him to climb up into a tree to pick some fruit, and then he trapped the devil there by carving a cross in the trunk. This time, he released the devil only to the promise that he'd leave Jack alone for another ten years. Soon after this, Jack passed away, but he found himself in an unexpected pickle.

Starting point is 00:15:40 Barred from heaven for being, well, not a very nice person, he was also barred from hell by his own trickery. He found himself with no place to go. As a result, he wandered off into the countryside carrying just an ember to light his way. He has been known as Jacko the Lantern ever since. While the folktale was first seen in print in the mid-19th century, it's hard to say how old the concept of a Jacko the Lantern really is. how old the concept of a jack-o'-the-lantern really is. As early as 1658, the Oxford English Dictionary records the term being used to refer to a phenomenon known in English folklore as Will of the Wisp and more formally in Latin as Ignis Facius. Translated, this means

Starting point is 00:16:52 foolish fire, and it describes a we know that the strange lights are caused by a scientific process. In short, compounds produced by organic decay, often in marshy areas, often in marshy areas, can cause photon emissions. In other words, they ignite on contact with the oxygen in the air. Although this is a natural process, it's easy to imagine how much thrilling speculation it must have created, when people hundreds of years ago simply spotted flickering lights in the wild. These sightings became intertwined with existing beliefs about spirits and ghosts. They would have been explained by the myth about wandering Stingy Jack and his glowing ember. This is, perhaps,63 to 1704, the dictionary also recorded the expression being used in reference to a man with a lantern, or to a night watchman.

Starting point is 00:18:42 This could be an indication of a broadening of the concept, borrowing from the lights on the marsh and expanding it to people carrying lanterns. It wasn't until 1837 that the Venerable Dictionary recorded a use of jack-o-lantern that referred to people putting a light inside a carved root vegetable. But historians speculate that this is just what folks in the countryside were doing as a matter of practicality. That sensible practice explains the very early origins of the carved pumpkins we know today. But jack-o-lanterns didn't appear as big orange gourds right away. The enormous squashes we are used to seeing in this day and age were a later addition

Starting point is 00:19:48 to the tradition of carving a lamp from a humble vegetable. Instead, people in the British Isles began with what they were growing locally, and that meant smaller vegetables such as turnips, potatoes, and beets. The Celtic tradition of Samhain included a ritual wherein people went door to door, asking for food and drink. This was, of course, a precursor to the modern tradition of trick-or-treating. But it happened at a time when rural areas had little light at nighttime. People who were wandering across the dark countryside sometimes used a hollowed-out root vegetable to carry an ember or a coal from their fire, lighting the way. At some point, people in Ireland, Scotland,

Starting point is 00:20:59 and England turned their little lanterns into an art. They began etching faces into their root vegetables and placing them in their doors and windows. This was thought to ward off wandering spirits such as Jack on key occasions such as Samhain or its church-sanctioned companion holiday, All Hallows' Eve. These holidays were celebrated at the same time of the year and incorporated many similar traditions. Over time, the celebration of All Hallows' Eve spread across Europe, creating related customs in many different countries. Widespread observance of Halloween was a phenomenon that grew most vigorously across the pond in North America. But the importation of those customs to the colonies there was far from a straight line, and Halloween didn't catch on across

Starting point is 00:22:16 the Atlantic right away. By 1790, the Europeans in the former U.S. colonies numbered over 3.5 million. According to Halloween historian Leslie Banatine, a majority of them were British, but settlements were nonetheless scattered and individual in their customs and beliefs. Although some observed autumn holidays, others, such as the Puritans, did not. Across the eastern seaboard of the future United States, future United States, views on merrymaking and celebration became shaped by the types of settlers who had colonized different areas. For example, the Dutch embraced festivity in New York, and the German and Swiss people of Pennsylvania imported their own rich folk traditions. Maryland was made up predominantly of Catholics who celebrated church holidays.

Starting point is 00:23:37 Meanwhile, the southern colonies were much more strongly influenced by African people and Spanish Catholics. Each of these groups, in their own way, laid the groundwork for a future tapestry of Halloween traditions in the United States. But, in his book about Halloween history, Leslie Banatine points to the colonies of Virginia as the most meaningful center of the North American Halloween as we know it today. Virginia was a place where the colonists observed the halloumast traditions of the Anglican church, but this religious activity lived side by side with a belief in folk magic, such as alchemy and charms. In Virginia, Bannatine explains that, by the time of the Revolution, a boisterous American autumnal celebration of romance and the spirit world was beginning to take shape in the imagination

Starting point is 00:24:58 of the people. Even so, the connection between carved orange jack-o-lanterns and the North American Halloween was not complete. Numerous sources agree that people all over the country were carving out pumpkins soon soon after their arrival in the United States, just not expressly for Halloween. The enormous, rotund squashes produced on those shores provided a delightfully vast canvas for the purpose. Putting decorations on pumpkins was much more satisfying than squeezing faces onto radishes, beets, or potatoes. Apparently, pumpkin carving quickly became a commonplace part of autumnal festivals. of autumnal festivals.

Starting point is 00:26:10 Poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem called The Pumpkin in 1850, mentioning their use at Thanksgiving. Oh, fruit loved of boyhood, the old days recalling, when wood grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling, when wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, glaring out through the dark with a candle within. The appearance of carved pumpkins at fall celebrations is further supported by periodical articles from the late 19th century, discussing the use of jack-o-lanterns at Thanksgiving celebrations.

Starting point is 00:27:01 Literary enthusiasts may point to an even earlier hint at the use of the jack-o-lantern, citing Washington Irving's story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which was published in 1820. Indeed, the spine-tingling tale by Washington Irving has become one of the most iconic Halloween tales of all time. However, only later adaptations of the story involve a jack-o-lantern or even a mention of Halloween. The original tale says only that Ichabod Crane awoke, next to a shattered pumpkin, after being chased by the infamous headless horseman. However, author Nathaniel Hawthorne did reference a jack-o-lantern in his 1835 story, The Great Carbuncle. And he also included a scarecrow with a carved pumpkin head in the story Feathertop, in 1852. On November 2nd, 1866, an article in the Ontario Daily newspaper in Canada said,

Starting point is 00:28:34 The old-time custom of keeping up Halloween was not forgotten last night by the youngsters of the city. They had their maskings and their merry makings, and perambulated the streets after dark in a way which was no doubt amusing to themselves. There was a great sacrifice of pumpkins from which to make transparent heads and faces, from which to make transparent heads and faces, lighted up by the unfailing two inches of tallow candle. And in 1867, a jack-o-lantern appeared in Harper's Magazine, an image which historian Cindy Ott shared in her book, Pumpkin, a curious history and American icon. One of the factors that may have caused the rise of the Halloween jack-o-lantern in the 19th century was the massive influx of Irish immigrants to the United States.

Starting point is 00:29:48 Devastated by famines in 1820 and 1846, thousands of Irish families abandoned rural life in their home country and fled to the cities of North America. According to Leslie Bannatine, counting only the years from 1847 to 1854, that totaled 300,000 Irish immigrants to the United States. As Catholics who descended from the Celtic tradition, these newcomers relished celebration of both Samhain and the church holidays. That included going house to house, begging for food and party games, which quickly became popular among Americans in the Victorian period. And, of course, the carving of jack-o-lanterns, large and small, was another tradition they practiced liberally. Looking at the dates of those Hawthorne stories and other mentions, it's obvious that these publications coincided with this period of heavy Irish immigration.

Starting point is 00:31:21 Pumpkin expert Cindy Ott fills in some interesting details about how immigrants and their jack-o-lanterns transitioned from using the humble root vegetable to preferring the big orange pumpkin. In an interview with Edge Effects magazine, she explained how the pumpkin became a decidedly rural symbol when the Industrial Revolution pushed so much of the population to the cities. The connection is incredibly simple. is incredibly simple. City merchants sell smaller, more manageable squashes. So even though a pumpkin offers all the same uses as more petite varieties, it was left behind on the farm, viewed as a sort of country cousin. For a time, the only reason farmers continued to

Starting point is 00:32:30 grow pumpkins was as inexpensive livestock fodder. But that identity as a country pumpkin ended up being its superpower. As a romanticized view of country life became more popular, after all, the grass is always greener on the other side, the humble orange pumpkin began appearing in pop culture. For example, American landscape painter Winslow Homer turned to the pumpkin patch for inspiration, using it as a subject for his work. According to Ott, the romantic view of pumpkins also had a political aspect. The greatest enthusiasm for this particular squash was in the north, where abolitionist views were more prevalent. There, a celebration of the small family farm was considered an admirable value.

Starting point is 00:33:45 Pumpkins were less popular, however, in the southern states, where small-scale farming was associated with poverty and Yankee ideals. This is not to say that Jack-o-Lantern Lorne didn't permeate the southern United States to some extent. Among black communities, stories of the Jack-ma-Lantern were told, bearing similarities to aspects of the Irish tale. Similarly to the people on the British Isles, those who lived in the swampy lands of the South were likely to attribute flashing lights in the woods to their folk character, Jack. According to Banatine's book on Halloween, various advice was given about how to repel Jack if he were to be encountered in the wild. This included turning one's pockets inside out,

Starting point is 00:34:58 sticking a knife into the ground, and lying down with one's eyes closed and ears plugged. As time went on, during the late 19th century, well-heeled Victorians tended to sanitize Halloween. Divorced from its wildest pagan roots, the event became a holiday for young adults who were courting. In upper-class homes, the night was often celebrated with precious parties and parlor games for courting. It wasn't until the early 20th century It wasn't until the early 20th century that large, community-wide Halloween events began to take root. The more boisterous personality of Halloween returned, and jack-o-lanterns proliferated. When the Depression arrived in the 1930s, putting farmers across the country out of

Starting point is 00:36:08 business and off their land, the pumpkin nonetheless survived. Ott's book tells us that, although pumpkin farming was still a small business, pumpkin farming was still a small business. Its volume actually increased by 99% between 1919 and 1949. Although the crop was originally intended as livestock feed, she shares an enlightening story told by a California farmer named John Arada. He recounted a time in the 1930s when he was stopped on the road by some well-heeled men in a car who wanted to buy his pumpkins. The realization that he could make more money selling pumpkins to citygoers than he could feeding them to his livestock was profound. People now had the available transportation and disposable income to venture out into the country and buy a little piece of rural America.

Starting point is 00:37:27 It was the beginning of an era when the pursuit of one's Halloween pumpkin was an act of nostalgia, a celebration of Americana. This attitude would ripple forward into the future, shaping the Halloween many of us celebrate today. A lithograph featured on Ott's website beautifully illustrates that important moment in jack-o-lantern history. when taking an excursion to the countryside and buying a pumpkin became popular. The picture is from a book called Peter Peter Pumpkin Grower. It shows a gaggle of well-dressed people boarding a city bus, all holding enormous pumpkins. This is a scene that would easily be recognized by many people today, who are accustomed to

Starting point is 00:38:38 taking their families to a pumpkin patch each Halloween or, at the very least, buying one locally in the city. From that point on, the rise of the pumpkin end by association, the Jack-o-lantern, could not be be stopped. Ott tells us that pumpkin production continued to rapidly increase. Whereas farmers had harvested 71,700 tons in 1949, that number more than doubled to 195,300 tons by 1959. And 1959 is a great place to pause, because it's the year that pop culture first experienced what has become one of the great Halloween stories of all time. That year, on October 26, Charles Schultz introduced America to the Great Pumpkin in his Peanuts comic strip. In the famous Peanuts comic strip and the animated special that eventually followed, the character of Linus stands firm against the skepticism of his peers as he spends Halloween night

Starting point is 00:40:15 awaiting an entity he calls the Great Pumpkin. His promise is that the Great Pumpkin will rise from the patch on Halloween, bringing gifts and toys, much like Santa Claus. The original comic strip introduced the story, but it wasn't until the animated television special was aired in 1966 that The Great Pumpkin reached the eyes and ears of much of America. Specifically, it was viewed by 49% of all its television viewers. This Halloween special has generally been considered one of the best animated peanuts productions. American children who grew up in the 1970s or 1980s are likely to remember gathering around the TV with excitement every year to watch its special airing. This special treat continued well into the era of

Starting point is 00:41:30 cable TV, when network specials were no longer necessary in order to access many shows. It is no surprise that Schultz's classic cartoon would find such a following during an era when the idea of a family-friendly Halloween had reached a fever pitch. By the wholesome 1950s, trick-or-treating and community celebrations of Halloween were the focus of the holiday. The animated special, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, featured all the trappings of that type of Halloween, from trick-or-treating to jack-o-lantern carving. Americans were wild for it.

Starting point is 00:42:26 Reportedly, in response to Charlie Brown's failure to obtain candy in the story, the television studio began receiving sweets from fans in the mail. Reviewers agreed that the show was a winner, calling it utterly enchanting, and praising its adult wit, charm, and wisdom. The legacy of The Great Pumpkin is undeniable. With its mid-1960s debut, it was the first Halloween special shown on TV, and was very important in defining the holiday of Halloween for American baby boomers as a generation. If pumpkins, both carved and uncarved, were not already a fixture of the holiday in the United States, Charles Schultz made sure they were firmly ensconced as an icon of Halloween going forward.

Starting point is 00:43:37 Having formed such positive memories of childhood Halloweens, childhood Halloweens. Is it any wonder that the children of the 60s and 70s wanted to keep participating in one of America's favorite celebrations? The traditions of Halloween have expanded now to include adults, and this ranges from elaborate costume parties to parades. According to Bannentine, by 1986, 60% of costume rentals in the growth of a pumpkin empire. The humble pumpkin patches of the early 20th century are now an extremely lucrative business, drawing countless families every year. Reportedly, among the 65% of Americans celebrating Halloween in 2021, 44% – or 94 million people – planned to carve a jack-o-lantern. lantern. Anyone who has visited these meccas of Halloween delight will know, they now incorporate everything from hay rides to carving contests to carnival rides. And, of course, at the end of the

Starting point is 00:45:20 visit, it would be a rare visitor who didn't leave with a pumpkin to carve at home, or two or three or four. If you want to display a variety of gourds, you won't have to look far. According to Cindy Ott, 65 to 70% of the pumpkins grown today are cultivated for aesthetic reasons. The American appetite for pumpkin has raised the humble gourd above the status of livestock feed. According to the magazine, The Hustle, if the average pumpkin farmer is able to get a yield of 1,500 to 2,500 pumpkins per acre, and each of those sells for about $4, and many for quite a bit more, the farmer ends up earning up to $6,000 per acre, even after subtracting

Starting point is 00:46:29 expenses. But it's not just the jack-o-lanterns themselves that support the farmers. For those running pumpkin patch attractions, it's the visits that really pile up the cash. The same magazine article cites one pumpkin patch that charges $22 admission per person. Once inside, visitors are likely to also patronize food and coffee stands and a gift shop. The pumpkin patch in question gets 20,000 to 30,000 visitors per weekend during the Halloween season. That's enough to fill six acres of parking.

Starting point is 00:47:29 It's easy to see why running a pumpkin patch is now a big business, even without selling a single pumpkin. Americans' pumpkin obsession has expanded to carving and growing competitions that attract media attention every year. Farmers are achieving new milestones each Halloween with their pumpkin sizes. As of 2023, the record is held by Michael Jordan from Anoka, Minnesota. Jordan from Anoka, Minnesota. His prize winner clocked in at 2,749 pounds, winning him a reward of $30,000. And that honor went hand in hand with that of the largest jack-o-lantern. The whopper he raised was transported to New York, where it was carved

Starting point is 00:48:27 to honor veterans and displayed at a charity event. The very carving of the venerable pumpkin is, of course, its own exciting art. It's hard to keep up with the competitions, but it seems the current time to beat for the fastest carving of a jack-o-lantern is 9.4 seconds, a record that is held by a Philadelphia teacher named Stephen Clark. Clark. Meanwhile, the record for the most jack-o-lanterns being lit at the same time was first set and repeatedly broken by the intrepid community of Keene, New Hampshire. As of 2023, according to the Guinness Book of World Records site, this number stands at 30,581. In fact, 2013 appears to have been a big year, because it was also when the record was established

Starting point is 00:49:42 for the longest tunnel of carved pumpkins. Dubbed Tunnel of Pumpkin Love, this orange wonder was constructed in Croton on Hudson, New York, using 648 jack-o-lanterns. As the world appears to become ever more virtual and high-speed, there's something elemental about the carving of a jack-o-lantern that calls to us. Cindy Ott theorized about that connection, saying, As Americans erected more skyscrapers, laid more railroad tracks, and pursued greater wealth and material goods with diligence, many felt they were losing their connection to the natural world, an authentic way of life, and their cultural roots. The pumpkin helped them rebuild those connections. Reflecting on its appeal, one has to think about the fact that,

Starting point is 00:51:00 when the pumpkin becomes the jack-o-lantern, we are able to tap into the folk history that ties us to our ancestors and their relationship to the earth. Having taken root in the British Isles and flourished in North America, Flourished in North America, the idea of the big orange jack-o-lantern has now been exported back to Europe, bringing an appreciation for pumpkins back to the place where it all began. Perhaps one of the greatest literary testaments to the modern symbolism of the jack-o'-lantern can be found in Ray Bradbury's classic 1972 novel, The Halloween Tree. In this fanciful story, a group of small-town boys embark upon a thrilling journey through the history of All Hallow's Eve. But with all the ghosts and witches and rituals they witness, one image stands out among all the

Starting point is 00:52:18 others. And it is that of the Halloween Tree itself, festooned with jack-o-lanterns. Bradbury writes, There must have been a thousand pumpkins on this tree, hung high and on every branch, a thousand smiles, a thousand grimaces, and twice times a thousand glares and winks and blinks, and leerings of fresh-cut eyes. And then, weaving the shining pumpkins into the holiday itself," Bradbury adds. The smile of the witch and the smile of the cat. The smile of the beast, the smile of the bat. The smile of the reaper taking his fee.

Starting point is 00:53:26 All cut and glimmer on the Halloween tree. Whether your Halloween is about gathering with friends, participating in trick-or-treating, or savoring the thrill of history and magic, may the Jack-o-lantern light your way. Happy All Hallows' Eve. I'm going to go ahead and close the video. The You You You You I'm going to go ahead and start the video. You You You You You You You You You You You You You You you

Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Sleepy History of Jack O’Lanterns

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