Jack-O'-Lantern Carving

It's that time of the year. October and Halloween is when so many kids of all ages carve faces or whatever they envision as interesting onto those orange round pumpkins that are shaped like...well...my whole body. But why do they do it, you may ask? Where did the pumpkin craving thing come from? After a quick check of my facts about this (after checking I found out I was only partly right, not bad for I am often totally wrong abut everything), here's the scoop.  The tradition of pumpkin carving began, not with carving pumpkins, but instead by carving turnips, beets, and potatoes. Hundreds of years ago, the Irish were the first to create what kids at Halloween call "jack o' lanterns". 

The name jack o' lantern is actually Jack of the Lantern, referring to a mythical character named Stingy Jack who played tricks on everyone in Ireland. Supposedly, he even pranked  the devil. After Jack died, his resume being so joke filled, he was not allowed to enter heaven. But alas! Jack had good news. He was also refused from entering hell - the devil would have nothing to do with him after his antics during his lifetime. Jack was forced to roam the world as a ghostly figure, holding a lantern made out of a carved out turnip containing a burning coal. And that is how the tradition of the jack o' lantern was born.....I think.

Halloween and the jack o' lantern was brought to America during the 1800s during a big wave of Irish immigration to the U.S. That's why Halloween is so big in the U.S. and is considered primarily an American Day. I never have carved anything on a pumpkin but the simplest jack o' lantern face, because I have no known craving skill and because once a pumpkin is carved it deteriorates rapidly. I am not a pumpkin murderer!  People who are in the know say that when you carve a pumpkin a few days before before Halloween Day you must spray the inside and outside of the pumpkin with water at least once each day or it will be history in a few days. The candles or other lghts they put inside of the carved pumpkin also kill it more rapidly. There is nothing worse than the image of a crumbling pumpkin. Ok, the image of a crumbling Lindsay Lohan or Miley Cyrus is pretty bad too.

When I was a child and when my daughter was small we used to paint a face or image on the pumpkin instead of carving it. A few years ago someone marketed a pumpkin face kit that can be pressed onto the pumpkin to give it a face. But those look as tacky as an over aged Hollywood star who had too many face-lifts. I prefer to let the viewer use his or her imagination, so I just put the pumpkin outside as it naturally appears.

Those who are talented in pumpkin carving produce amazing images. But like those ice carver sculptures we hear about or see each winter, the pumpkin carvers works are doomed to a short life span. Then there are those stencil kits that the untalented like me most often  use to carve their pumpkins....sort of cheating. And it's almost like an assembly line product because they all look too familiar. The best pumpkin carvings are unique, or funny, or highly complex works. A masterfully free hand carved pumpkin is like Brad Pitt, while a stenciled generated carved pumpkin resembles Danny Divito.  It's easy to see which looks better. I guess that makes pumpkin faces similar to the human ones who carve them.

I hope you have been inspired by my remarks to get a pumpkin and carve away this Halloween. If not here are some child level on line pumpkin carving links for you to try.
http://www.flashgamesplayer.com/Free/Pumpkin-Carving/Play.html
http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/halloween/games/pumpkins/
http://spookathon.com/halloween/pumpkin-carver.php
http://www.freeonlinegames.com/game/pumpkin-carve