We’ve midway through October, and you know what that means: Halloween is fast-approaching.
Everyone’s favorite time to dress-up, decorate, and bring out candies and pumpkin spice latte.
And it wouldn’t be Halloween without the iconic Jack-O-Lantern.
We’ve become accustomed to the plastic variety nowadays, but there’s still fun to be had in carving your own Jack’O Lantern from a real pumpkin.
Ever wondered how the Jack’O Lantern came to be?
Can you imagine a time when Halloween wasn’t associated with bright, orange pumpkins with glowing faces?
Well, I’ll help you out.
The tradition began in the 19th century with the Irish, who carved faces into turnips and potatoes to ward off evil spirits.
I assume it worked, because the tradition clearly caught on – and I’ve not seen any evil spirits around lately.
Who knew vegetables had spiritual protecting powers?
It wasn’t till 1850 and onwards that the pumpkin became the go-to vegetable for carving out Jack’O Lanterns.
The shapely, large vegetable lent itself well to the artistic and spiritual endeavors of the celebrants.
And with a 1,400 pound pumpkin to use as a Jack’O Lantern, I think this man can ward off spirits from the whole town.
This is Mike Schmit from “Moby Mike Pumpkins.”
He likes growing things, especially giant pumpkins!
For Halloween, he wanted to see just how big a Jack’O Lantern he could create.
Since this is no ordinary pumpkin, Moby Mike’s ordinary tools wouldn’t do the trick.
He needed something heavy-duty for such a heavy pumpkin.
This thing is dang-near the size of a tree stump!
So he busts out the chainsaw to make some starting cuts into the pumpkin.
I sure hope any would-be evil spirits don’t know how to use chainsaws either.
Though a chainsaw may seem loud and unwieldy, Moby Mike still manages to be precise with it.
You can clearly make out the eyes and mouth on the pumpkin after a few seconds of him carving.
Seems like he’s done this before.
It’s not the cleanest pumpkin carving you’ll ever see, but how many people have tried carving a pumpkin this size?
And since I keep using the word “pumpkin”, I may as well ask if the word ever sounded a bit funny to you? Because it kinda does.
They weren’t always called pumpkins. One of the first words for them came from a French explorer in 1584.
He called them “gros melons.”
“Gros melons” was translated to “pompions” in English.
And then along came the fairytale Cinderella where “pompions” was anglicized into “pumpkins.” And that’s how we got the word.
With a pumpkin the size of this one, those excess bits he cut off are more than enough for several pumpkin pies and salads.
I hope he didn’t let them go to waste.
In the meantime, he needs to worry about all the water draining out of the pumpkin.
He might need a mop for this one.
Watch a 1,400-lb pumpkin get turned into a giant Jack’O Lantern below. It’s quite entertaining!
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