How do JavaScript closures work?

Problem

How would you explain JavaScript closures to someone with a knowledge of the concepts they consist of (for example functions, variables and the like), but does not understand closures themselves?

I have seen the Scheme example given on Wikipedia, but unfortunately it did not help.

Answer

Closures are not magic This page explains closures so that a programmer can understand them — using working JavaScript code. It is not for gurus or functional programmers.

Closures are not hard to understand once the core concept is grokked. However, they are impossible to understand by reading any academic papers or academically oriented information about them!

This article is intended for programmers with some programming experience in a mainstream language, and who can read the following JavaScript function:

                 function sayHello(name) {                   var text = 'Hello ' + name;                   var say = function() { console.log(text); }                   say();                 }                 sayHello('Joe');