Halloween is coming, time for spooky costumes, tricks, treats and of course, jack-o-lanterns. Jack-o-lanterns are one of the most popular decorations of the season. Found on most trick-or-treated doorsteps glowing brightly with Halloween spirit but where did this Halloween icon come from?
Celtic History
Known as “Samhain” by the Celts meaning “summers end”, Halloween represented the end of the Celtic year and their last harvest. This magical night was believed to be the time when loved ones who had died could pass over to our realm. Jack-o-lanterns carved from turnips and gourds were placed on window sills and doorsteps to welcome deceased family members and to ward off evil spirits. When the Irish began migrating over to America, they found the pumpkin much easier to carve. So began the tradition of carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.
The Legend Of Jack
There is an old Irish legend about a sneaky, shrewd farmer named Jack. According to folk lore, Jack was being chased by a small mob of villagers whom he had robbed. When he ran into the woods, he was stopped by the devil who told him it was time for his soul to be collected. Craftily, Jack convinced the devil to turn himself into some coins so he could pay the villagers for the stolen goods. Once the coins where brought back into the village the devil could transform back and the villagers would fight over the stolen money. The devil agreed. Jack tightly placed the coins into his wallet and underneath a large cross he had stolen from the village church. The cross stripped the devil of his powers, he was trapped. Left with no other options, the devil was forced to give into Jack’s demands and agree to never collect his soul. Many years later when Jack died, he was unable to pass through heaven’s gate. With no where to go, Jack tried entering hell, but was denied because of the devil’s promise. Ashamed, Jack now wears a jack-o-lantern on his head and is forced to roam the earth for all eternity.
The Lanterns
For your enjoyment, here are some creative jack-o-lanterns:
You see a commercial on television for Verizon Wireless and are charmed by the “Can you hear me now?” guy. Brimming with expectations of excellent service, you sign up for a phone plan, but like me and many others, are severely disappointed. Now you’re stuck with this crummy cell phone company for two years. Is there nothing you can do? Sure, you can break your contract if you want to pay a ridiculously high termination fee. Should you just grit your teeth and bare it for two long years? There may be a way to get out of your cell phone contract early without paying any fees. Ely Rosenstock of Crastinate.com has come up with a clever way around the dreaded termination fee.
In this tutorial Ely describes how to break your Verizon Wireless contract. There is no reason why this shouldn’t work with any other cell phone company. Read the the user agreement for your service provider, which should be very similar to Verizon’s, and apply the steps in the video.
Recently, I was editing my blog and as I rearranged the sidebar, I decided it was time for a change. At the time I was using the Google Chrome theme, but something about the colors and blocky font gave it a childish appearance. After a few hours of browsing through Wordpress’s enormous theme selection, I found the perfect one. I installed and activated the theme and took a look at my blog to see how it looked. It seemed that all the images were now aligned to the left. The text of any word-wrapped images now began at the top and ended at the bottom of that image. Disappointed at the thought of having to reactivate my old theme, I decided to see if this issue was fixable. Apparently some older themes aren’t compatible with Wordpress 2.6. If you are having similar problems, try opening your stlye.css file in the theme editor and adding this code:
.aligncenter,
div.aligncenter {
display: block;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}
.alignleft {
float: left;
}
.alignright {
float: right;
}
.wp-caption {
border: 1px solid #ddd;
text-align: center;
background-color: #f3f3f3;
padding-top: 4px;
margin: 10px;
/* optional rounded corners for browsers that support it */
-moz-border-radius: 3px;
-khtml-border-radius: 3px;
-webkit-border-radius: 3px;
border-radius: 3px;
}
had died could pass over to our realm. Jack-o-lanterns carved from turnips and gourds were placed on window sills and doorsteps to welcome deceased family members and to ward off evil spirits. When the Irish began migrating over to America, they found the pumpkin much easier to carve. So began the tradition of carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.
