Well, the answer to why we carve pumpkins is because it’s fun! Of course, there is a little more to the answer than that! Pumpkins were not the first of the fruits and vegetable family to be carved.  According to a Wikipedia article, carving gourds dates back thousands of years. These gourds were basically decorations. Traditions like these carry on today. If you have ever been to the islands or Hawaii, gourds are carved out, decorated and used as cups!

Carving out gourds and other vegetables (like squash) has been a long time tradition in many cultures. Although nobody seems to know for sure, pumpkins are thought to be native to North America. There is a lot of folklore surrounding pumpkin carving. In the early 1800’s, it was done as a sign of the harvest. It’s not referenced with an association to Halloween until November 1st, 1866 and that was in a Daily News Journal in Ontario.

There is an Irish Legend about Stingy Jack that gives some background on carving fruits and vegetables and lighting them. Jack’s rounds with the Grim Reaper ultimately led to him an eternity of wandering the earth with an ember filled turnip. Many people in Ireland carved gourds, turnips, and squash to fend off demon spirits. Many Irish people moved to America and they brought their traditions with them. It stands to reason that they discovered pumpkins and found them to be more conducive to carving and, thus, pumpkin carving became popular in North America.

In modern times, it has become an art form. The idea of just carving a face on a pumpkin is practically an ancient idea. Anymore, all kinds of images are carved into pumpkins. Political figures, cartoon characters, scary scenes, movie characters and popular scary figures are all carved into pumpkins.