The ultimate icon of Halloween is a grinning pumpkin with a candle inside, the Jack-o'Lantern. The name comes from Irish legend, about an accursed wanderer too wicked for Heaven but too good for Hell, who walks the Earth carrying a light in a carved turnip. In America, the native pumpkin replaced the turnip (they're bigger, easier to carve, and taste better). And since Halloween falls just after pumpkin harvesting time, the connection between the two was inevitable.
The original legend seems to have been a variant on the Will-o-the-wisp, which takes its name from a similar legend of a wandering spirit carrying a light. Both stories refer to the very real phenomenon if the "ignis fatuus" -- mysterious lights seen at night.
So what were those nighttime lights? Assuming they weren't medieval Irishmen or Englishmen out at night on disreputable errands by lantern-light? Scientists have been wondering about that for centuries. The most common explanation is hydrogen phosphide and/or methane produced by rotting vegetation. This is the famous "swamp gas" which J. Allen Hynek put forth as the explanation for some Michigan UFO sightings. One can certainly believe that would be a common enough phenomenon in peat-rich Ireland.
But the world is full of mysterious lights -- the Wikipedia entry on "ghost lights" has a page-long list of folk names for weird lights seen at night. Are the conditions for luminous gas production that common? Hard to say.
The simple truth is this: people sometimes see lights at night, especially when they are alone or in unfamiliar country. If you're a medieval Irishman you see a wandering spirit, or trooping fairies, or the Devil with a lantern. If you're a Cold War era American you see a flying saucer.
But if you're out on Friday night, it's probably a kid with a flashlight looking for candy. Or possibly a Dalek.
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