Jack-O'-Lanterns 2016 Forever Stamps — Halloween Issue

Issue facts

Issued: September 29, 2016
First Day City: Anoka, MN
Type of Stamp: First Class Mail
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Method: Offset, Microprint

Why anyone started carving them

Fear of the will-o'-the-wisp. English folklore gave that name to ignis fatuus — "foolish fire" — a ghostly light reported most often by people crossing swamps and marshes at night. Some described a figure carrying a lantern; others saw only a floating ball of light.

The lights were said to retreat when approached and to follow anyone who turned away, and the warning attached to them was blunt: do not follow one, because it leads travelers to their deaths.

From turnips to pumpkins

To drive these spirits off, people carved faces into turnips and set candles inside, making them as frightening as they could — which had the side effect of producing something that looked a great deal like a will-o'-the-wisp itself. The practice mattered most at Halloween, when the boundary between this world and the spirit world was believed to be at its thinnest.

Versions of the legend exist in many countries. Scientists have proposed explanations for the lights without settling the question, so the will-o'-the-wisp remains genuinely unexplained — which is arguably the best thing a Halloween story can be.

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