![]() ![]() Populating most of Europe, England, Scotland, and Ireland, the Celts believed the year divided into seasons of light and darkness, with Samhain ushering in the latter. This amounted to a Celtic variation on New Year’s Eve. The Coligny Calendar, a bronze plaque from that time, marks the annual celebration of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). ![]() Whether students go for a more gruesome carve to ward off Halloween spirits like the Irish did, or keep it simple with the classic jack-o-lantern smile, pumpkins have cemented themselves into Halloween culture.Halloween grew out of a Celtic tradition dating back to at least the first century B.C.E. Steak knives are wonderful for hacking through the thick flesh, but intricate details call for dainty, flexible saws. Next, though a steak knife will work just as well, investing in a small pumpkin carving kit from the Dollar Store is worth the dollar for the smaller varieties of carving utensils available. Printing from the internet, or even free drawing with dry erase markers first will help guide a design along and help those who are more intimidated by putting an unforgiving knife to pumpkin. New carvers may be tempted to buy stencil kits from super stores, but those are not always necessary. Either way, the end goal is the same, but here are a few tips to ensure carving success. Some like to pick a pumpkin for a purpose, while others may prefer to grab a gourd first and plan a design later. “I’m not a pro pumpkin carver, but I try.” “I just carve the normal little face,” Keskeys said. Lauren Keskeys is a junior photography major and looks forward to picking pumpkins to celebrate the fall season. With shows like Halloween Wars on the Food Network and massive pumpkin carving festivals spanning the nation, pumpkins have gained extensive popularity with artists and sculptors.īut not everyone can be a carving aficionado. Gregory-Abbott explained the glowing light from the pumpkins acted as a lantern to help guide humans safely through a night of gathering food.Ī lot has changed since the first Halloween superstitions, but pumpkin carving has never been replaced, though it has gone through an artistic transformation. “And two: you tried to scare away by carving the scariest face you could.” “They carved pumpkins for two reasons, one: were kind of mocking the evil spirits that were trying to get you,” Gregory-Abbott said. ![]() Pumpkins quickly took the place of turnips and beets because of their size, but Gregory-Abbott said the reasons for carving still remained the same. She explained that pumpkins are native to the Americas and it was not until the 19th century when Irish immigrants settled on the east coast that the first pumpkin jack-o-lantern was carved. Gregory-Abbott said the Irish originally carved scary faces into hollowed-out beets and turnips in the late 16th or early 17th century to protect themselves from evil spirits. The eve of All Saints’ Day, also known as All Hallows’ Eve, was the night where underworld spirits were thought to descend onto Earth and roam freely among the living, what Gregory-Abbott describes as the day of the “scary dead.”Īll Hallows’ Eve was eventually shortened to Halloween, but the Celtic traditions still remained. Sacramento State history professor Candace Gregory-Abbott, who specializes in medieval history, said Christians later morphed the Celtic festival into All Saints’ Day, which Gregory-Abbott thinks of as the time to honor the “good dead.” The origins of Halloween jack-o-lanterns started in Ireland with the Celtic Harvest Festival of Samhain. Pumpkin carving is a tradition many students grew up with and still use to celebrate the coming of fall and Halloween, but few may know the origins of the carving tradition. ![]()
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