Stingy Jack

Greed never pays
Stingy Jack is one of the most iconic Halloween characters, at least in contemporary Gaelic culture. Renowned for his avarice, his drunkenness, abandoned by the angels and forbidden to enter Paradise once dead, his presence was also proscribed in the underworld, for having cleverly mocked the devil on several occasions.
Trapped between two worlds, he was forced to dig a hole in a turnip (large rutabaga), to slip an ember into it (ember). A poor comfort to enlighten him somehow (or neither one nor the other), in limbo...

