Before pumpkins took over Halloween, Jack-o’-lanterns were carved from beets, turnips, and other veggies! This spooky tradition traces back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, where people believed that spirits and fairies could cross into our world. To keep the evil ones away, they’d carve grotesque faces into turnips. 

When Irish immigrants arrived in the U.S., they found pumpkins—bigger, better, and way easier to carve than turnips. The rest, as they say, is Halloween history!