The fall season is starting to settle in. The pumpkin spice is practically in the air. The fall season is a huge draw-in for major consumerism. Something about the traditions of fall gets people ready for summer to fade away and for the cool air to roll in. But do we know where those fall traditions came from?

The first tradition of the fall is enjoying pumpkin pie–the dessert that is the pure essence of fall. You might think to yourself, the infamous meal between the pilgrims and the Indians ate that at their meal. Contrary to popular belief that this happened, historians have found that the traditional fall foods we have today were basically different versions of what we have today. However, there was something similar that Early American Settlers of the Plymouth Colony in southern New England (1620-1692), where they would put milk, honey, and spices in a hollowed pumpkin, stew it, then bake it in hot ashes. Originally Native Americans brought pumpkins to settlers as gifts and taught them the many uses for them. Then, over time the use of the pumpkins evolved into the traditional pumpkin pie we have today.

Another fall tradition is carving pumpkins. This tradition came from an Irish legend called “Stingy Jack”. He supposedly invited the devil over for a drink and was “stingy” and didn’t want to pay for his drink. So, he convinced the Devil to change into a coin so he could pay for their drinks, and then proceeded to put the change in his pocket instead and put him beside a cross, trapping him in the coin. So, when he died God wouldn’t let him into heaven and the devil wouldn’t let him into hell so he was banished to wander the earth for all of eternity. Because of this story, people in Ireland started to carve demonic faces in turnips to scare his wandering soul and when some came to America they started carving pumpkins and the tradition obviously spread. 

Lastly, another fall tradition is corn mazes, a corn field that has different paths that you have to get through in order to get to the exit. It originally started in 1993, when Don Frantz and Adrian Fisher together designed and built the first corn maze that was only 3 acres, in east-central Pennsylvania. People have then continued to make it on a bigger scale and it’s now a fun fall tradition.

Fall traditions really do make the fall and make the aesthetic that many adore what it is today. Fall traditions have been appreciated by millions of people for many years and I personally hope that never changes.