Why the jack-o'-lantern is a pumpkin: a legend
Why the jack-o'-lantern is a pumpkin | it wasn't always a pumpkin (Irish turnips, radishes, beets, and potatoes), the lantern in the legend (Stingy Jack hollowed out a turnip, hellfire), the Irish carved turnips to scare wandering spirits (scary faces at the door), then came to America (19th-century Irish immigrants, swapping turnips for pumpkins), pumpkin's natural advantages (big, round, soft, bright orange, easy to carve and hold a light), name unchanged (Jack-o'-lantern: the container changed but the legend didn't)