You Don’t Know Jack.

A Fun Fact-Filled, Graphical Look At The History Of The Jack O’ Lantern.

It’s that time of year. Time to buy a giant vegetable and mutilate it in the name of art, all while celebrating the holiday of Halloween. And the possibilities for how to decorate your pumpkin? They are as endless as the imagination.

But where did this weird tradition come from? Why do we even carve pumpkins?

Turns out we can thank our pagan ancestors from the United Kingdom. Back when they were worshipping peat-bog spirits and giants, they would carve root vegetables such as turnips into lanterns. This practice evolved over the years, of course. We no longer used hollowed-out gourds to guide us while we party and pay tribute to spirits.

And we’ve changed up the medium for our artistic masterpieces, too. Now it’s a pretty much pumpkin-exclusive deal.

But there’s a lot more to the story than just that. So scroll on through the graphic below to learn all you ever wanted to know about Jack O’ Lanterns.