This is the story of an Irish man.
His name is Jack.
Many stories refer to him as Stingy Jack.
Stingy means greedy. We call STINGY a
person who loves money, and wants it all
for himself.

Stingy Jack is a bad person. He drinks a lot, loves
money and takes pleasure in playing mean tricks.

He spends lots of time at the pub.
One day he meets the Devil.
The Devil offers to buy Jack a drink
in exchange for his soul.
Jack accepts.
The devil turns into a coin to pay for
the drinks.

Jack puts the coin in his pocket where he keeps a cross.
The cross keeps the Devil from changing back.

The Devil asks Jack to let him turn
back to his old self.
Stingy Jack agrees to free the Devil,
but the Devil can’t take his soul
now.
This is the contract: Jacks frees the
Devil, and the Devil must wait some
time before taking his soul.

Years later, he meets the Devil again, by an apple tree.
The Devil wants to take his soul. It is time!
Stingy Jack asks the Devil to climb up the tree and get him an
apple.
As soon as the Devil climbs up the tree, Stingy Jack places a
cross and the Devil is trapped again.
Jack and the devil make another contract, and the Devil agrees
to wait some more before taking Jack’s soul.

Finally, Jack dies.
He cannot go to Heaven, because he was a mean man.
He goes to Hell, but the Devil does not take him. He says he
would wait.
Now Stingy Jack has nowhere to go. He cannot go to
Heaven; he cannot go to Hell.
He stays here and wanders.

The Devil gives Jack some flames from Hell.
Jack puts them into a pumpkin to make a lantern.
He is still here, and you can see him and his
lantern on Halloween night.

The Irish called the ghost of Stingy Jack, “Jack of
the Lantern”, later abbreviated to Jack
O’Lantern”.