Pumpkin Carving Fun!
Hello, NJTSA! Hopefully you worked hard on your Halloween costumes (maybe for our Costume Contest…) — I know I did. But since Halloween was this week, I figured I would write about something topical: pumpkin carving!
Making Jack o’ Lanterns on Halloween is a tradition that dates back to 19th Century Ireland where pumpkin and gourd carvings were used to ward off evil spirits. Back then, the Irish would place their pumpkin carvings on prominent windowsills to keep back the bad spirits; the legend also goes that the pumpkins represented souls in purgatory, due to Halloween’s propinquity to All Saint’s Day. However, the modern depiction of Jack o’ Lanterns can be accredited to Washington Irving’s story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
I mean, I’m all for the history and backstory of this spooky holiday, but let’s get to the fun stuff! I personally love to make very intricate designs in my pumpkins – my favorite being when I made the Heart Grenade from Green Day’s American Idiot. But you don’t need a big, complicated design to make a great pumpkin. The best thing to do is to keep your design neat and clean, so cut around your Sharpie-Guidelines to make sure you can’t see them and wash the inside and outside of your pumpkin when you’re done. Below are the guides I have been using to create my Jack o’ Lanterns. Hopefully they can help you, too.
8 Pro Tips for Carving the Perfect Pumpkin:
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/halloween-ideas/a22196/pumpkin-carving-tips/
11 Tips for Carving a Better Jack O’Lantern:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/59312/11-tips-carving-better-jack-olantern
Advanced Pumpkin Carving Techniques:
https://www.punchbowl.com/p/advanced-pumpkin-carving-techniques
Post your Jack o’ Lantern on Twitter or Instagram and tag us! Share with @NewJerseyTSA on Twitter and @nj_tsa on Instagram with the hashtags #NJTSA and #MadeInTSA!