Boston, October 1903. Based on the Irish origins of the Halloween lantern.
Eileen had been in Boston for three months and still found many things strange: the electric trams, the din of the harbour, the hurry everyone was in. But nothing as strange as the enormous pumpkins her neighbours hollowed out in October to put a candle inside. “In Ireland we used turnips,” her grandmother Bríd told her, as she carved a tiny face into one the size of a fist.
“What for?” “A very long time ago, our ancestors celebrated Samhain, the night when the harvest ended and the dark half of the year began. People said that on that night the border between the living and the dead grew as thin as a veil. Bonfires were lit, and people dressed up so the spirits wouldn’t recognise them.”
She also told her the story of Stingy Jack, who tricked the Devil so many times that, when he died, neither Heaven nor Hell would have him. The Devil threw him an ember to light his way, and Jack put it inside a hollowed-out turnip. Ever since, he has wandered the roads with his lantern. “That’s why we carve faces on them: so the wanderers take fright and pass us by. Over the centuries, the Church put the feast of All Saints on those dates, and its eve was called All Hallows’ Eve. That’s where Halloween comes from.”
Before she finished, Grandmother carved a small half-moon on the turnip’s forehead. “It’s the mark of the Byrnes of Ballyvaughan,” she explained. “Your great-grandfather carved it, your grandfather carved it and your father carved it. That way, any of our own knows that home folk live in that house.”
Eileen’s father had left for America two years earlier to look for work, promising to send for them. His letters arrived regularly for a year, the last one from Boston, and then they stopped. When the money ran out, Grandmother sold the cow and bought two passages. Now they lived in an enormous city where he didn’t know they were and they didn’t know where he was.
That afternoon, Eileen put the turnip on the front step, with a candle inside, among the neighbours’ gigantic pumpkins. It looked like a mouse among elephants. The next morning, the turnip had gone. In its place was a huge pumpkin, carved with a crooked smile with a single tooth.
Eileen thought some child in the street was making fun of her. But when Grandmother saw it, she put her hand to her mouth. On the pumpkin’s forehead there was a half-moon. She rummaged in the trunk and took out a folded photograph of a young man smiling and showing a slightly crooked tooth. “Your father always carved that smile,” she said. “His own.”
Eileen ran out into the street. By the railings stood a thin man, his cap in one hand and the little turnip in the other. “Pumpkins are easier to hollow out here,” he said, his voice breaking, and he held up the turnip the way you show someone a letter. Eileen hugged him so hard that the cap fell to the ground. That day she understood that traditions cross the ocean and change their shape, and that not every October light is there to frighten off the wanderers. Some are there to help them find their way home.
Activities
1 Detective Inference
How did Eileen’s father know his family lived in that house? Tick the correct hypothesis.
- a) He saw Eileen put the turnip on the step and recognised her, although he hadn’t seen her for two years.
- b) He received a letter from Grandmother, written before she sold the cow, telling him they were going to Boston.
- c) An Irish neighbour told him about an old woman and a girl who had recently arrived from Ballyvaughan.
- ✓d) He recognised the half-moon carved on the turnip’s forehead, the mark only his family made.
Which clue proves it? Copy or summarise the clue from the text that proves it.
Correct hypothesis: d). That’s it: the Byrne half-moon said “home folk live here”. That’s why he answered with another one.
Key clue: “Grandmother carved a half-moon on its forehead, the mark carved by all the Byrnes of Ballyvaughan.” That’s the key: it was a sign only their own people could read.
2 The Loom Order of events
Put the events in order, starting with the earliest. Write the order number (1, 2, 3…) in each box.
- 5 Grandmother sells the cow and buys two passages.
- 2 The eve of All Saints comes to be called All Hallows’ Eve.
- 3 Eileen’s father leaves for America to look for work.
- 6 A pumpkin with a half-moon on its forehead appears on the step.
- 1 In Ireland, Samhain is celebrated at the end of the harvest.
- 4 The father’s letters stop arriving in Ireland.
Correct order:
- In Ireland, Samhain is celebrated at the end of the harvest.
- The eve of All Saints comes to be called All Hallows’ Eve.
- Eileen’s father leaves for America to look for work.
- The father’s letters stop arriving in Ireland.
- Grandmother sells the cow and buys two passages.
- A pumpkin with a half-moon on its forehead appears on the step.
Samhain is a very ancient festival; centuries later, the Church set All Saints’ Day and its eve took the name All Hallows’ Eve. Then, in Eileen’s life: her father leaves, his letters come for a year and then stop, Grandmother buys the passages and, three months after they arrive, the pumpkin appears.
3 The Missing Page Coherence
A year later, on 31 October, what is on the Byrnes’ front step? Tick only one option.
- ✓a) A huge pumpkin and a small turnip, side by side, both with a half-moon on their foreheads.
- b) Only pumpkins, because the father persuades Grandmother that in America they must forget the customs of Ireland.
- c) A turnip with no face and no candle, because now that they’re together there’s nobody wandering to frighten off.
- d) A pumpkin with lots of teeth, because the father is embarrassed by the crooked smile he always carved.
Answer: a). That fits: traditions cross the ocean and change their shape, but the family’s mark is still there.
- b) The father kept the turnip and showed it to them like a letter: he doesn’t want to forget them.
- c) The light did exactly the opposite: it helped the one who was wandering find his way home.
- d) That smile is his signature: it’s how Grandmother knew the pumpkin was his.
4 Spot the Contradiction Literal reading
Three statements don’t fit the story. Put an X next to the 3 statements that don’t fit the text.
- a) Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the start of the dark half of the year.That’s how Grandmother explains it.
- ✗b) At Samhain people dressed up so that the spirits would recognise and protect them.They dressed up precisely so the spirits wouldn’t recognise them.
- c) Stingy Jack put the ember the Devil threw him inside a hollowed-out turnip.That’s how his lantern came about, according to the legend.
- ✗d) All Hallows’ Eve was the name for the night after All Saints’ Day.It was the eve, the night before All Saints’ Day.
- e) The last letter that arrived from Eileen’s father had been sent from Boston.That’s why Grandmother and Eileen went to Boston.
- ✗f) The father was waiting by the railings with a small pumpkin in his hand.What he had in his hand was the little turnip.
5 The Gallery Visualisation
In the game you choose the illustration that answers this question: “What did Eileen find on the front step the next morning?”. Here, you draw it yourself, with every detail the text gives you.
What should appear: A huge pumpkin with a crooked one-tooth smile and the Byrne half-moon on its forehead.
Reward drawings that include the details from the text, not artistic skill.
Ending
To read aloud once the answers have been checked.
Eileen’s father had been looking for his family for months without knowing it. An accident at the docks had kept him in hospital for half the winter, out of work and unable to write. When he recovered, he sent letters to Ireland, but they came back unopened: nobody lived there any more. That night, on his way home from his shift, he saw a tiny turnip among the pumpkins and, on its forehead, the Byrne half-moon.
He didn’t want to knock at that hour, because there was more than one Byrne in the neighbourhood and he wasn’t sure. So he left an answer only his family could read: a pumpkin with the same half-moon and his own smile, the one with the crooked tooth. He took the turnip and waited by the railings for dawn.
The history is real: Samhain marked the end of the harvest in Ireland and the arrival of the dark half of the year; in Ireland and Scotland turnips were carved to ward off spirits, as in the legend of Jack; and the eve of All Saints, All Hallows’ Eve, gave its name to Halloween. Irish emigrants took the custom to America, where the pumpkin, bigger and easier to hollow out, ended up taking the turnip’s place.
Suggested marking
Each activity is worth 2 points (10 in total). In 1, one point for the hypothesis and one for the clue. In 2, give one point if only a couple of events are swapped. In 4, half a point for each correct cross and minus half a point for each true statement crossed out.