Back in 1987 our family's history of pumpkin carving got started on Corey's very first Halloween. Uncle Carl was the master carver and came over every year and carved pumpkins for Corey. He would carve Corey's name on one in big letters and the other ones would have Batman or whatever carved into them. Corey watched every year until he was old enough to join in the fun...now he's the master carver around here! (His specialty is "The Scream Face".)

But how did this all get started?

References to pumpkins date back many centuries. The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for "large melon" which is "pepon." "Pepon" was nasalized by the French into "pompon." The English changed "pompon" to "Pumpion." Shakespeare referred to the "pumpion" in his Merry Wives of Windsor. American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin." The "pumpkin" is referred to in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater and Cinderella.
Native Americans dried strips of pumpkin and wove them into mats. They also roasted long strips of pumpkin on the open fire and ate them. The origin of pumpkin pie occurred when the colonists sliced off the pumpkin top, removed the seeds, and filled the insides with milk, spices and honey. The pumpkin was then baked in hot ashes.

People have been making jack-o-lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o’lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o’lanterns.

When Pumpkins were discovered in North America, they were quickly found to make excellent carvings. Beets, turnips and potatoes were spared in favor of pumpkins, which functioned as a food and, then, as a tool for warding away evil spirits on Halloween. Halloween, along with the jack o' lantern, was brought to America during the 1800s with a wave of Irish immigrants. It is celebrated across the continent today and has been for over a century.

A pumpkin is not a vegetable; it's a fruit. Pumpkins come from the cucurbitaceae family and is related to melons, squashes, zucchini and cucumbers. A very large number of the pumpkins grown today are for the purposes of carving during Halloween. Pumpkins are very difficult to find outside of the fall season.

Today, pumpkin carving continues to be a big part of the Halloween tradition, extending across North America, Ireland, parts of England, and in Europe in some places. Patented pumpkin carving saws have been designed, expert pumpkin carvers have appeared on nation-wide television shows, and even software for creating stencils has been developed (no kidding!).

Me personally I stick to the old fashioned basic carving a few triangles for the eyes and nose and whatever I can figure out for the mouth...but to each his own.

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