Pumpkins: From Guts to Glory

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Hansen

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November 4, 2011 • Elizabeth Hansen, Online Editor  
Filed under Just For Fun

Steely blades slide through the outer shell of the orange sphere, sawing a hole into the top. Hands begin fishing around inside, pulling out slimy pulp and countless seeds from the vegetable. Once empty, the blade is at it again, cutting and slicing into the flesh to make a design that will glow on the porches of countless houses in the neighborhood. Kids love it, adults remember it, and teens smash it! It’s carving pumpkins.

Pumpkin carving has been around in one way or another for years. In the beginning, turnips would be whittled into lanterns to honor the souls that remained in purgatory. The pumpkin came about by being a more common plant in North America. It was also much larger, so it soon took the turnips place.

Now, pumpkin carving is a traditional way to celebrate the creepy holiday. Most people have tried to carve at least one pumpkin at some point. The temptation of making the cliché grinning face is almost unbearable. On the other hand, some like to take a more creative approach to the situation.

Sophomore Laura Gonzales carved pumpkins with her sister last Halloween. “I carved a fancy G into a pumpkin,” Gonzales said, remembering the time, “There was also a sun, a moon, and clouds.” Carving pumpkins is a great way to bring together the family for some fun, and to involve kids in something they’ll remember forever.

“When I was about seven, I loved to watch Scooby-doo and Halloween was my favorite holiday,” Sophomore Braydon Galvan reminisced, “so I decided to combine the two and carved Scooby-doo into a pumpkin. It was pretty legit.” Picking out what design to carve is part of the fun. If an idea is in place and a knife in hand, anything can be carved into the awaiting pumpkin shell.

Putting a lightened candle into the hallowed gourd and displaying it for all to see is what most would want to do, but some people have other ideas of what to do with their pumpkins after the carvings complete. Take Sophomore Patrick Harwell for example.

“My friend had a Jack-O-Lantern and a bunch of Black Cats (a type of explosive used during the Fourth of July),” Harwell said, “So I put them inside. The Jack-O-Lantern exploded.”
Whether a more exciting end to your pumpkin awaits or the same spot on the porch it has every year, hopefully your carving was one for the record books like these fellow Coronado students.

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