The familiar scarecrow we see in fields and fall home decor has a long, interesting history that dates back over 3,000 years to Egypt and Greee. But the scarecrow we know now came into its own about 500 years ago in Europe, specifically in Britain and Ireland. (Why does that not surprise me?)
In ancient Egypt, farmers covered their wheat crops with netting draped over sticks. This protected the wheat from quail. And, when the nets caught the quail, the Egyptians would collect the birds and eat them. At the same time, in Ancient Greece, farmers hung tunics over sticks to represent the god Priapus (the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite who was supposedly really ugly ) with the hope that these stand-ins would scare off birds from the vineyards and other crops. These versions were painted purple and one hand held a bat (to hurt the birds) while the other held a scythe (in hopes of a good harvest).
In Japan, farmers would stuff old, smelly rags with straw, hang bells on them, and then burn them in the fields in late September. The smoke and stench supposedly kept the birds away while the farmers brought in the harvest. There are even stories of the earliest Native Americans screaming at the birds to keep them away from crops.
As time passed and Europe became more populated, the trend of scaring birds out of fields continued. Since the early European settlers were agrarian, protecting crops was off paramount importance. It was truly a matter of life or death. The earliest scarecrows were meant to keep away birds as well as small children who might pick food, even before it was ripe, because of hunger. So keeping kids away was meant to protect the yield as well as prevent the children from getting sick on unripe food.
Later on, during the Middle Ages, children were encouraged to run through the fields while clapping their hands and throwing stones to scare away the birds. They were known as “scare-crowers”. But after the plague hit, and so many children died, the farmers had to come up with a new plan. Hence the resurgence of the stuffed scarecrow. But while it wasn’t hard to stuff clothes with straw and mount it on a pole in a field, making a “realistic” head was a problem. So they used carved turnips and various gourds for the head.
At this same time, a dark ages practice in Ireland appeared in Europe. This ancient practice was known as the Jack-o-Lantern. The Jack-o-Lantern came from old Irish and British stories about a trickster who was doomed to wander, ind death, between Heaven and Hell. To make his way, he carried a lantern made out of a carved pumpkin or turnip that held a candle. On Samhain (Halloween), the veil between heaven and earth is at its thinnest. And the stories say that that night was the time that Jack-o-lantern thought he had the best chance to cross over into the next world. Anyway, as this practice moved to Europe, the farmers took Jack’s lantern and used it to top the head of their scarecrow.
Eventually, the idea of the scarecrow moved to the New World (along with the stories of Jack-o-Lantern) and up until WWII, scarecrows were a common scene in family farms around the country. Now that pesticides are used, scarecrows have been relegated to backyard gardens and Halloween displays. But there are still scarecrow festivals, scarecrow haunted trails, and even scarecrow movies to keep the legend alive.
