A Special Time

This  weeks photo challenge of the Daily Post had the topic ‘rounded‘. A perfect topic for today – Halloween 🙂 Walking through the street and stores, there are pumpkins everywhere. The mainly orange coloured roundly shaped vegetables are not only delicious to eat, but also used for a very special tradition around this time of the year – pumpkin carving!

Each year on Halloween, many people turn the vegetable into a creepy, spooky lantern. The tradition originated in Ireland and was brought to the USA. There is a myth telling that many years ago, a man called Jack Oldfield tricked the devil by carving a cross into a tree to prevent him from getting down. Making the devil angry, Jack was frightened and made a deal of only letting the devil down if he would never have to be afraid of him anymore. After Jack’s death, he was not allowed into heaven as he previously made a pact with the devil, but was not welcome in hell as well as the devil was still upset. Wandering lost and lonesome through the darkness, he got himself a turnip that was lit with help of black coal.

But what has the myth to do with the tradition of carving a pumpkin? As the Irish came to the USA they recognised that there were way more pumpkins than turnips available, so they changed the tradition. The faces have been carved into the pumpkins to scare demons. With the burning candles inside and them placed in front of the house, they are supposed to protect and spent light in the dark.

Wandering around and seeing all the lovely but foolish looking creepy faces makes this time of the year a special time – HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🙂

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