Jack O Lantern (Happy Halloween)

Halloween is a holiday with many deep cultural traditions from candies to monsters and everything in between. One tradition that has deep roots with Halloween is the carving of root vegetables mostly pumpkins these days. These carved vegetables are called commonly Jack O Lanterns.

My Jack O Lantern

Growing up in Canada was hit or miss for Halloween. Some years Halloween would be warm with children trick or treating in light costumes while other years it would be so cold that you would have to wear a heavy jacket. One thing was a given though you would probably carve at least one pumpkin each year whether it be at home or at school. I've carved numerous pumpkins over the years but haven't kept up with the tradition for almost a decade. This year was different as my daughter is two and getting interested in Halloween.

We picked up an average sized pumpkin from our local supermarket and let it sit in our house for a couple days to make sure it wouldn't rot. My wife and I then decided how we would decorate our Jack O Lantern. We used Jack from the Nightmare before Christmas as our inspiration and I started to carve the pumpkin.

First Blood! (Cutting a hole in the pumpkin)

Our daughter was interested in the pumpkin and watched religiously as I carved the pumpkin and removed the seeds and puree from the pumpkin. She touched the squishy contents and seeds but was grossed out by the texture. She didn't want to touch the pumpkin but watched the whole process. Removing the seeds and flesh can be quite messy and requires some old newspapers or containers to hold the contents of the pumpkins. Once the pumpkin has been cleaned of its contents you can start carving the face with your knife.

Showing my daughter the pumpkin guts

The pumpkin took about forty minutes to carve and was a success. We used four small candles to light up our finished Jack O lantern. The finished product looked great in the darkness. The illuminated Jack O lantern looked a little like Jack from the nightmare before Christmas with some small tweaks. It was so fun to carve the pumpkin and in the future our daughter will be able to carve her own pumpkin. Also our son will be able to carve one too but it might be awhile yet.

The Finished Jack O Lantern

I wish everyone a happy and safe Halloween. Enjoy the day with your family or friends and try not to eat too many candies.

Thanks for reading.