lovers of the holiday have probably had their front porches decked out to the gills with cute Halloween decorations like carved jack-o’-lantern pumpkins as a way to hold Halloween-themed ...

But the key difference in jack-o-lanterns is their blade-like gills that can be detached from the cap — and the “serious gastric distress” that can be caused by eating them. “It is a ...

Pumpkins are now one of the most recognizable symbols of Halloween, but they weren’t used as jack-o’-lanterns until the mid-19th century. How did pumpkins go from being an ordinary squash to a ...

The term jack-o’-lantern was first applied to people, not pumpkins. As far back as 1663, the term meant a man with a lantern or a night watchman. Just a decade or so later, it began to be used ...

Ready for a gourd time? Nothing says Halloween like Jack O'Lantern Spectacular, a nighttime stroll through a dark forest speckled with thousands of glowing carved pumpkins. This magical treat ...

Jack-o’-lanterns aren’t truly "alive" until they're lit up. Historically, this has been done using real candles, but these days, there are many more ways to set them aglow that don't involve ...

A far cry from the grinning pumpkins of Halloween today, the original folklore version of Jack-o-Lanterns, named for Jack O’Lantern of the Irish myth, were actually quite terrifying. They were ...

Stacey Leasca is an award-winning journalist with nearly two decades of newsroom experience. She is also the co-founder of Be a Travel Writer, an online course for the next generation of travel ...