Halloween is quickly approaching, and you might have some pumpkins you’ve harvested from your garden. That means it is the perfect time to enjoy some festive traditions and make some Jack O’Lanterns!

Jack O’Lanterns are a fascinating autumn tradition that have been around since the 1600’s. But, the custom of carving faces into pumpkins wasn’t always about these orange squashes.

Hundreds of years ago, in Ireland and Scotland, mythology about a ghostly figure wandering the woods with only a piece of coal held in a turnip lantern led people to carve their own spooky faces into turnips or beets to scare away the ghosts and evil spirits. Trick-or-Treating also originated around this time and people began bringing these lanterns with them as they traveled from house to house.

In the 1800’s, when immigrants arrived in the United States from the UK and Ireland fleeing famine, they brought this custom with them, only, instead of turnips and beets, they began using vegetables native to North America: pumpkins! (Sources: history.com, carnegiemnh.org)

Now that we know about the history of Jack O’Lanterns, let’s make some of our own!

To begin, pick your pumpkins! If you’ve grown pumpkins in your garden this season, now is the time to harvest them. Don’t worry if you didn’t grow any pumpkins this year, though! You can go to your local pumpkin patch and pick out the perfect pumpkin!

Once you’ve chosen your pumpkins, print out our Pumpkin Carving Stencils here! Pumpkins come in all different shapes and sizes, so you can change the print settings to make your stencils smaller, if need be. These stencils can also be used for pumpkin painting if you want more colorful Halloween decorations!