The tradition of carving pumpkins on Halloween comes from an old Irish legend about a man named Stingy Jack. Originally, people in Ireland and Scotland began carving demonic faces into a specific vegetable to ward off evil spirits and frighten Jack’s wandering soul. When Irish immigrants moved to the U.S., they began using pumpkins, as they were native to the region. What vegetables were used for Jack-O-Lanterns before Irish immigrants came to the U.S.?