On the night of October 31 to November 1, one of the oldest holidays in the world is celebrated - Halloween. This ancient Celtic celebration has an interesting history, original traditions and funny paraphernalia. The holiday strangely combines two traditions: the honoring of evil spirits and the worship of all saints.
In the USA, Europe and Canada, on this day it is customary to dress up in costumes of evil spirits, hold masquerades, light bonfires and build jack-o'-lanterns. It is not surprising that on the approaches to the famous holiday, many people have a question: how to make a pumpkin for Halloween? Today we will try to give you comprehensive instructions on how to make a Jack-O-Lantern.
Pumpkin is the main attribute of Halloween. Celebrants, as a rule, cut out ominous faces on the ripe fruit and insert a candle inside, constructing a kind of lantern. The habit of making vegetable lamps originated in Ireland and Great Britain. Celtic monks (Druids) made them from turnips, beets, rutabaga and used them to drive out evil spirits.
Initially, this ritual had nothing to do with Halloween, but in the 19th century, North America made it the main tradition of this holiday. Only instead of these vegetables they began to use pumpkin, since it symbolizes the harvest time. Americans named the jack-o-lantern the Jack-O-Lantern and made it the official symbol of Halloween.
Jack Lantern - who is he?
Before you start making a pumpkin for Halloween, you should familiarize yourself with the legend of Jack-O-Lantern, whose soul still wanders in search of peace.
According to legend, Jack led a miserable life as a lazy farmer, drunkard and thief. Fleeing once again with stolen goods from a crowd of angry peasants, he met the devil, who announced his hour of death. But Jack did not want to die and asked the messenger of hell to delay his death a little, offering in return to discredit the sinless peasants.
The insidious agreement was that the devil was supposed to turn into a gold coin with which Jack would pay for the stolen things. The coin will then disappear and the greedy villagers will start a fight to find out who stole it. The devil liked Jack's idea. He immediately turned into a gold coin and climbed into the thief's pocket.
But since the stolen item was a cross, the demon instantly lost his power. Jack released him on the condition that he would not take his soul to hell.
But when he died, his soul was not accepted either in heaven or in hell. Finding his way in the pitch darkness, Jack asked the devil for a lantern, to which he threw him several smoldering coals. The thief built a lamp from a pumpkin, put coals in it and began to wander between heaven and earth in search of peace. This is how the Jack Lantern appeared, commemorated annually on the night of November 1st.
How to Make a Halloween Pumpkin: Step-by-Step Guide
To make a Jack-O-Lantern you will need the following arsenal of available tools:
- pumpkin;
- cutting board;
- knives (one long, one short with a thin, sharp blade);
- spoon;
- felt-tip pen, marker or stencil with a face;
- candle.
Attention! Try to choose the freshest pumpkin. The skin of such a fruit has not yet hardened, which means it will be easier for you to carve patterns on it.
So that the lantern can not only fulfill its purpose on the day of the holiday, but also please the eye afterwards, check the pumpkin for the presence/absence of damage and rotten areas. At the same time, its shape and size do not matter.
Let's get started. The detailed process of making the lantern is shown in the photo.
Step 1. After choosing a pumpkin, cover the table with old newspapers or oilcloth, since carving the fruit is fraught with contamination.
Step 2. On the top of the pumpkin (around the stem), draw a circle or square with a marker to indicate the future hole. Make it large enough so that you can easily remove the pulp by hand or with a large spoon.
Step 3. Armed with a long kitchen knife, cut out the marked “cap”. This process must be performed at a slight angle so that you can cover the pumpkin with the cut off top, like a lid.
Step 4. Using a sharp-edged spoon, scoop out the pulp and seeds. Particularly work on the “front” part of the vegetable. The pulp in this area should be removed and leveled with a spoon until the wall thickness reaches two centimeters.
Step 5. Before making the Halloween pumpkin's face, use a felt-tip pen to draw the outlines of the eyes, nose, and mouth with a sinister smile on the skin. The eyes and nose are drawn in the form of three triangles, and the mouth is drawn in the shape of a crescent with two fangs.
Attention! Make the features of the face large and noticeable, otherwise they will be difficult to cut out.
If you have stocked up on a stencil, attach it to the fruit with tape or glue and transfer the design onto the pumpkin with dotted lines. To do this, you can use either a knife, a needle or a thin awl. After which the template can be removed.
Step 6. Taking a short knife with a thin blade in your hands, carefully draw it along the contour of the design. You need to cut slowly so as not to spoil the future lantern. The cut pieces can be pushed inside the pumpkin, or pry with a knife and pull forward. To ensure that the contours are smooth and clear, do not forget to scrape off the flesh protruding here and there with a knife.
To obtain a clear design, you can use special tools for carving vegetables.
Step 7. Having freed the pumpkin from the cut out pieces, fix the candle in its cavity and cover the fruit with a lid. The main character of Halloween, Jack-O-Lantern, is ready!
- To make the pattern last longer, cover its contours with Vaseline or vegetable oil.
- To keep your jack-o'-lantern fresh, soak it in water for a few hours.
- Make several small holes in the lid of the fruit so that hot air flows out without frying the pumpkin from the inside.
- Before use, place candles in the freezer for 2-3 hours - the lantern will burn longer.
- To ensure that your Jack-O-Lantern not only burns, but also spreads a fragrance into the air, rub the inside of it with crushed cinnamon or nutmeg.
Attention! A cleaned and carved pumpkin will retain its decent appearance only for 3-5 days, so it is necessary to build the lantern on the day or the day before the holiday.
You can admire a variety of pumpkin ideas in the photos presented.
Paper Halloween pumpkin
You can make original crafts for the holiday not only from vegetables, but also from paper. A paper pumpkin is suitable for home decoration and as a souvenir or gift for guests. Let's look at how to make a Halloween pumpkin from colored paper quickly and easily.
To do this you will need the following tools:
- A-4 sheet of orange color;
- green A-4 sheet;
- black A-4 sheet;
- threads with a needle;
- scissors;
- pencil and ruler;
- glue.
Step 1. Using a pencil and ruler, divide an orange sheet of paper into several thin strips, approximately 1.5-2 cm wide and 15-16 cm long. Cut the sheet with scissors. If you want to make your pumpkin unusual, use a tool with a raised edge. For one craft you need 18-20 paper strips.
Halloween is coming very soon (October 31st). This holiday is not yet very popular in Russia and the CIS countries, but everyone probably knows about its symbol - the pumpkin lantern. You can make it yourself, and even a child can do it under adult supervision.
How to make a jack-o'-lantern
First, we need - of course - a pumpkin, but not just any pumpkin, but a ripe one, without spots, scratches or other damage. Do not lift the pumpkin by the stem - this can cause the vegetable to fall and become crushed. To make cleaning the pumpkin easier, place newspapers underneath it.
Carefully cut off the top of the pumpkin and the stem to create a round neckline. For this purpose, you can use special plastic knives for “pumpkin carving,” which are safer.
Then, using a long-handled ladle, scoop out all the seeds and insides of the pumpkin. To prevent the vegetable from falling on its side and to make it easier to scoop out the seeds, also cut out the middle. By the way: the larger the pumpkin, the more convenient it is to clean it.
Now find the spot on the pumpkin where you will cut out the face. Draw facial features (eye sockets and grin) on a piece of paper. There is no need to make complex designs, otherwise it will be difficult to cut. Attach the "face" diagram to the pumpkin and trace the lines using a sharp pin or nail.
Now all that remains is to carefully run a knife along the “dotted lines” of the pumpkin and remove the cut out areas. The lantern is ready!
Place it in a visible place, don't forget to put a few burning candles inside, turn off the lights and admire your work. Such a pumpkin can greatly surprise, or even frighten, guests, the main thing is not to be frightened yourself. That's all!
And so that you can make a variety of “facial expressions” for your lanterns, we invite you to look at the photos for a wide variety of ideas for jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.
You will need quite a lot of space to work, and it is better to cover it so that you don’t have to bother with cleaning it later (whether it’s a table or the floor)
Let's start making a Halloween jack-o'-lantern
First you need a knife with serrations; it is most convenient for them to cut out the tail part of the pumpkin.
Be sure to cut at a 45 degree angle, otherwise you may ruin the pumpkin. The diameter of the hole should be such that it is convenient to remove the pulp from there and place a glass inside - 10 - 15 cm. It is important to take into account the size of the candle that will be installed in the pumpkin. It is recommended to choose according to the vegetable; if it is large, then the candle should not be small, nor should the hole for it be small.
The marker lines will serve as boundaries along which we will cut. It is more convenient to cut curved lines with a serrated knife, but the eyes and nose are better with an ordinary small knife.
You can remove marker residue using regular aftershave lotion; industrial or ethyl alcohol or turpentine will also work. Do not use dry powders to erase markers; they may damage the surface of the pumpkin.
We take a scented glass candle, set it on fire and then place it inside the pumpkin through a previously prepared hole.
If you don’t have glass candles, which are sold in souvenir shops, you can use any glass container. The candle should be placed in the jar so that the wick is below the top edge of the container, so the flame will not be blown out by the wind.
Our pumpkin lantern is ready for Halloween, now all that remains is to find a safe place where it will be visible at night.
Despite the fact that the Russian people have a bunch of their own holidays and traditions, they also do not disdain strangers. Such a famous foreign holiday as Halloween is no exception.
This seemingly harmless celebration came from ancient pagan rituals and holidays. Back in the seventh century, May 13th was celebrated as All Saints' Night, which was dedicated to honoring the memory of all deceased martyrs. From the very beginning, this day was a unification of the traditions of several Celtic celebrations, which were dedicated to the elements of fire, the power of darkness, the summer and winter periods. But after many years, the traditions became more Christian, and the holiday moved to the night from October 31st to November 1st.
In the celebration of Halloween these days, only pagan paraphernalia is observed: spiders, cats, witches, brooms, disguises, etc. And the main colors of Halloween are orange and black, which have always corresponded to the ancient concepts of death and the harvest of ancient idolaters.
Our people do not attach as much importance to this celebration as it does in the states. And instead of the main traditions: visiting neighbors’ houses, distributing sweets, etc., our younger generation celebrates this holiday in a rather simplified form. Everything is limited to the usual masquerade and comes down to dressing up in creepy costumes.
One of the main attributes of this intriguing holiday is a pumpkin with candles located inside. There are quite a few versions regarding its origin: protection from evil, lost souls, etc. But the most interesting is the legend about Jack, who tried to outwit the Devil and twice received his assurance that he was untouchable. But he soon died without taking advantage of his privileges. But Jack could not go to either hell or heaven after death. Since then, his spirit has been wandering around the world, illuminating its difficult path with a small piece of coal that he received from the Devil. Jack placed his smoking coal in an empty pumpkin and began to wander around the world.
Jack-o'-lanterns are made using a variety of different types of faces. And in this article we will try to dwell in detail on how to make such a lamp for All Saints’ Day with our own hands.
To make it you need to stock up on quite a few tools. This is a file, pins, an awl or knitting needle, two knives (short and long), a spoon, a candle, a can of black paint, a kitchen board, a stencil, and, of course, the pumpkin itself.
Now let's proceed directly to manufacturing. For this master class, a pumpkin in the shape of a bottle and the shape of Jack's face were selected to suit it.
Initially, you should cut off the top of our pumpkin. Make the cut at a slight angle so that the pumpkin closes like a cork.
It is quite difficult to cut a pumpkin of this shape, because... its top is filled with pulp, and the seeds will only be at the very bottom. Therefore, you need to get to them very carefully. It is quite difficult to extract the pulp, so in addition to a spoon, you can also use a knife. Our preparation will be ready when the pulp and seeds are extracted.
Now let's start cutting out the face using our stencil. Adjust it to the size of your pumpkin. Then attach all the pieces to the pumpkin. If you are happy with everything, pin them with pins.
You should get something similar to the picture.
Trace parts of Jack's face this way and set the stencils aside.
Then take a small knife and start drawing out all the lines, but be extremely careful. Getting closer to the end will make it easier for you to do the job.
With each touch, press the knife harder and harder so that you will eventually be able to cut right through the walls of our pumpkin. Pull out the eye by carefully prying it up with a knife. The same needs to be done with all parts of the face.
As you can see, all the edges look very jagged and sloppy. To remedy this situation, file them using a file. This should be done in the same direction: towards the inside, so that the edges do not have a torn appearance. As you can see: the right smoothed eye is significantly different from the left.
Using the same steps, smooth all the ends except the cap.
The pumpkin carving stage is over. Place a decorative candle inside and your Jack-O-Lantern is ready. But if you want something more original, then prepare black paint. To avoid painting the cut lines, plug all holes with newspaper. Be aware that paint that is not yet dry is highly flammable. Therefore, place the candle inside only after the pumpkin has completely dried.
After two hours, when the paint is completely dry, remove the newspapers from the holes. You can paint the pumpkin stem a different color if you wish.
Now our Jack O'Lantern is completely ready. Light a candle and turn off the light. Its reflection will spread in a very long path, thanks to this shape of the mouth.
The oldest Celtic holiday, Halloween, has surprisingly taken root in many countries. This celebration has its own amazing history, well-established traditions and recognizable attributes. Interestingly, the holiday is based on a contradictory meaning: the worship of saints and the glorification of evil spirits.
Traditionally, on Halloween, everyone prepares for themselves a costume of an evil spirit, witch, vampire and other frightening creatures. But the main attribute of the holiday is always a pumpkin lamp - a Jack-lantern. It is placed on windows, hung above the threshold to scare away evil spirits. How to make a Halloween pumpkin with your own hands - read below.
Why, among all the variety of fruits, pumpkin?
The Halloween pumpkin is a ripe fruit with carved holes in the shape of sinister faces with sharp fangs. A candle is placed inside such a pumpkin, which is why it is called a lamp. Originally, vegetable lanterns were made in England and Ireland, and they had nothing to do with Halloween, but in the 19th century, North America adopted this tradition and introduced it into the celebration. The pumpkin was chosen as a symbol of the harvest, and the Americans called their vegetable lantern the Jack-O-Lantern.
Festive Halloween pumpkin
There is also a legend about Jack-O-lantern - a thief, a worthless farmer and a noble drunkard. Once again, having collected some stolen goods, Jack ran away from the peasants and met the devil. He told him that now it was time for him to die, but Jack asked to delay his death, and in return to commit some dirty trick - to discredit the good names of the peasants. According to the agreement, the devil became a gold coin, which Jack paid for the stolen things. But the moment the coin is handed over, it should disappear, and the peasants will start a fight, finding out which of them stole it. The devil liked the idea and put a gold coin in Jack's pocket.
Kids can decorate pumpkins for Halloween too
But it so happened that the stolen thing was a cross, so the devil immediately lost his power, and Jack released him on the condition that he would not drag him to hell. However, after death, Jack's soul was not accepted either in hell or in heaven. On the road in complete darkness, Jack looked for a lantern, but the devil threw him only a few coals. Then he carved a lamp from a pumpkin, put coals in it and continued his eternal wandering between heaven and earth.
Halloween Cookies 
Decorating cans for Halloween 
Halloween Lanterns
DIY Halloween pumpkin - simple and fun
First you need to choose the freshest pumpkin - it has a soft crust, which will make carving easier. The shape of the pumpkin is at your discretion; it can be an elongated pumpkin or a traditional round one. Cover your work surface with paper or oilcloth first, because during the cutting process, most likely, it will get pretty dirty.
You will need:
- fresh pumpkin;
- food board;
- well-sharpened long and short knives;
- spoon with sharp edges;
- marker, felt-tip pen and stencil with a face (you can draw without a stencil);
- candle.
Pumpkin carving option
If you get the hang of it, carving a Halloween pumpkin will be quite easy:
Instructions for making a Halloween pumpkin with your own hands 
Halloween pumpkin example 
Fun pumpkins for Halloween 
Pumpkin carving
Preserve your jack-o'-lantern for a long time
Naturally, the jack-o-lantern will soon begin to deteriorate; it is affected by oxygen and various microorganisms. In order for Jack to live longer, you can apply a few simple measures. You need to prepare a solution to disinfect the pumpkin and prevent the spread of bacteria:
Decorating a pumpkin with sequins 
An example of how to carve a pumpkin for Halloween 
Halloween Pumpkin Carving Options 
Halloween decor and pumpkin 
Decorating a pumpkin with rivets
How to make a Halloween pumpkin using paper
It is not always possible to purchase a fresh and beautiful pumpkin to make a lamp; in this case, you can use paper. Prepare:
- A4 sheet of orange and green paper;
- scotch;
- pen or pencil;
- scissors or stationery knife.
Halloween pumpkin made from caps and leaves
After preparing all the necessary tools and materials, we begin making a paper pumpkin:
Step-by-step instructions for creating a Halloween pumpkin using paper 
Halloween pumpkin using paper 
Paper pumpkin
So, using a ripe pumpkin or colored paper, you can create a unique atmosphere in your home when celebrating the mysterious Halloween.
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