Design your own pumpkin lantern
Tired of grinning Jack-o'-Lanterns? Try something new!
Carving root vegetables like turnips into lanterns to light your path and scare away bad luck is an old Celtic tradition. Like many Celtic traditions, according to the Irish Times, it’s linked to a story. In this case, the story tells of Stingy Jack: a man who tricked the devil and was given an ember from hell to light his lantern.
A North American Tradition
The tradition caught on in a big way in North America through Irish immigrants, who began carving these faces into pumpkins. Today, there are as many grinning, toothless or toothy, scary or goofy faces carved into pumpkins for Halloween as there are pumpkin carvers out there in the wide world.
The pumpkin seems to be the perfect medium for this particular art form, since it’s kind of shaped like a human head, and it’s long been associated with nature and abundance. From parlour games in the 19th Century, to trick-or-treating on the street in the 20th Century, and finally to pumpkin festivals initiated by farmers and farming communities beginning in the 1970s, the colourful gourd has maintained its dominance as the mainstay of the Jack-o’-lantern business.
Pumpkin carving was a tradition in my family, but I really came onto the field when I was a programmer for the Regina Public Library system. I got paid to read books to preschoolers! And to manage after-school crafts, young adult activities, book clubs, and adult programs based on books we had in the library. My novice experience in running a pumpkin-carving program for kids blossomed into gooey, sticky mayhem, complete with pumpkin innards and chunks of discarded rind. (Sorry, no pictures!) But doing this program year after year gave me a chance to tame the goo and unleash our collective creativity.
New takes on an old tradition
About the same time, on one of my drives to the market gardens in Lumsden, a small community of 1800 souls located about twenty minutes north-and-east of Regina, I spotted a row of Jack-o’-lanterns with designs instead of faces carved into them. The first one that caught my eye was a design with a cat carved into it.
Ever since then, I have been intrigued by the clever craftsmanship that some carvers use for their Halloween art. A quick look in my local public library yielded more than 20 books on carving unique and interesting pumpkin designs, and the Internet is full of designs and ideas. For example, if you want to avoid the mess altogether, why not paint on a design?
Some of the most clever designs involve decorative flourishes. This type of artistic result likely involves the use of a stencil or carefully drawn design, using a sharp knife or other implements such as zesters, apple corers, melon ballers, and peelers of various kinds.
But all sources agree: always DRAW before you cut! Draw it on paper and tape it to the pumpkin, or stencil it on, or draw it with a grease pencil or dry-erase or washable marker.
Prefer sculpture to drawing? Why not try building a few unique designs like these:
Turn your entire yard into a work of art:
Or create a fan-art masterpiece and do homage to an old friend:
There are so many possibilities, all you have to do is let your imagination guide you. There are even articles that suggest going beyond the pumpkin altogether and carving a lantern on pineapples, squashes, tomatoes, oranges, or even radishes!
Finally, don’t forget to use LED lights or flameless candles or similar lights inside the pumpkin for greater safety.
As for how to carve the designs, there are many books, how-to articles, and Youtube videos available on the Internet. Exactly how to scoop out the seeds is apparently a matter of some controversy. Back in the day, we cut the top off the pumpkin and scooped everything out through the resulting hole. But many clever carvers today suggest new methods, like cutting the back off the pumpkin, or cutting a circle in the bottom of the pumpkin and allowing the guts to fall out naturally. I will leave it to you to Google “How to carve a pumpkin” and choose your favourite.
Have you ever tried to carve a unique design into a pumpkin or other vegetable? Leave a comment or a photo to share your experience!
Next Week
What would you do if you discovered your town’s mayor had been murdered? Join Ann Marie Ackermann as she describes her research for her award-winning book, Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee (Kent State University Press, 2017). Ann Marie will also share a chapter from the book. And on Friday, paid subscribers will learn about Hefezopf, southern Germany’s traditional food for a funeral repast. It’s a centuries-long tradition with archaeological evidence from graves.
Legal disclaimer: We disclaim all liability for the content of websites to which our site provides links.
A city near me just hosted a pumpkin-carving contest. In this link, you can see the winner's creation. https://www.lkz.de/lokales/stadt-ludwigsburg_artikel,-volker-jokiel-gewinnt-kuerbis-schnitzfestival-in-ludwigsburg-_arid,804025.html
Wow. I had never made the Irish connection before. Jack O'Lantern! Mmmm, I'm hankering for roasted pumpkins seeds.