Punkie Night is a West Country custom practised on the last Thursday of October related to Halloween in Somerset.
Children will march around with a jack o'lantern, singing a song which goes -
"It's Punkie Night tonight
It's Punkie Night tonight
Adam and Eve would not believe
It's Punkie Night tonight"
No one knows how the custom originated, although it is almost certainly linked with Hallowe'en and similar traditions can be found across the West Country.
The word "Punkie" is an old English name for a lantern, and jack o'lanterns for Punkie Night may be made of swedes or mangel-wurzels rather than pumpkins.
An alternative explanation of the term is that it is derived from pumpkin or punk, meaning tinder.
The festival has been celebrated at various sites including Castle Neroche in the Blackdown Hills, Long Sutton and, more commonly, at Hinton St George and the neighbouring village of Lopen.
Origins
According to local legend, Punkie Night began because men would go to the fair in the nearby town of Chiselborough and return home drunk to Hinton St. George late at night.
They needed candles to see their way and, because it was late October, they needed to put the candles inside something to prevent the wind from blowing them out.
Variations of the legend say that women made the lanterns and then used them when they went out looking for their drunken husbands.
It is sometimes said that women would go door to door begging for mangel wurzels and candles to make the lanterns, which explains the origin of the "Punkie Night Song".
It is sometimes said that the foolish men saw the lanterns glowing in the darkness, thought they were ghoulies, and ran home quickly.
In reality, the origins of Punkie Night probably date back much earlier than the fair in Chiselborough.
It is clearly related to Halloween and may be a continuation of Samhain celebrations.
Source - Halloween Fandom
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