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| little hands at work |
An Ignus fatuus is a Jack-o-Lantern. The inhabitants of the Isles were keen on carving up gourds and poking light holes in the outer skin as kind of scary things to put out in the moors. Seems like a waste of candles and food but nowadays it is replaced by the one on the front porch to let the trick for a treaters know someone is home with candy.Tomorrow is a day when most of the elementary schools let the kids dress up and go to a town parade. It is actually very nice to see and to let kids enjoy the tradition; and it is a tradition and not the work of the devil. You should know that. No one is very sure how far back the idea of carving pumpkins goes but the jack-o-lantern - you remember? Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumps over the candle stick? - certainly has some American roots - there is a poem called "The Pumpkin" by Whittier in 1850:
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!
All of which (witch) is more than you want to know. Have a happy Halloween. Keep the cats indoors.