Guest Blog: Ghostly Sprits in the Marshes
By Ann Johnson
Our family like many others have celebrated Halloween over the weekend and as part of this annual celebration we carved and lit up our pumpkins. This morning as I reflect on the weekend and the memories it evokes, I started to wonder how pumpkins came to be part of the Halloween traditions and why this particular vegetable.
According to English Heritage the carving of the pumpkin has its origins in England, Ireland and Scotland. Traditionally, turnips are harvested at this time of year, so there is a lot of them around in the autumn. They were a very important part of our ancestor’s winter diet giving much needed nourishment and vitamins.
Preparations for Halloween in the past involved carving ghastly faces into turnips, to make them resemble demons and devils. Burning candles were placed into the hollowed-out turnips. The glowing carved faces were reminders of death and were also used to scare nasty neighbours. These shining turnips were called ‘punkies’ and ‘jack o’lanterns’ and were named after ghostly lights rumoured to be seen in marshes and bogs that were believed to be the spirits of the dead.
In the 1800’s a lot of people left England and Ireland to go and live in America. They took their Halloween traditions with them, but instead of carving turnips, they made their Halloween lanterns out of pumpkins. There are a lot of pumpkins in America in the autumn. They are also soft and much easier to carve than hard old turnips.
Halloween pumpkins started to become popular in England about 20 or 30 years ago, many people think these are American inventions, but in many ways they have just been re-introduced to us, just modern versions of old British traditions that go back hundreds of years.
Carving pumpkins has meant something totally different to our family over the last four years. I lost my son in law and my daughter her husband in early November 2017 following mental health challenges he could no longer manage; a week before his sudden death we carved pumpkins in our family kitchen: our efforts of that very night in the image below. He thoroughly enjoyed that afternoon and evening and we had many laughs together whilst we carved away; I still remember the 50+ pics he sent me of our works of art on the evening. So at Halloween we do not feel the horror of the date; or the sadness it might bring us all but instead we look back in laughter and love of a lovely and fun family afternoon.
The other exiting part of carving a pumpkin is to consider what now! Do not miss the opportunity to save the left overs from the pumpkin to make a culinary delight! Perhaps pumpkin - humous; pie; galette, biryani, pasta, fondue; pickle, puree; cake; soup; muffins or even cheesecake or maybe using the seed in dishes or creating stuffed pumpkin.
Share your pumpkin carving tips, memories and recipe ideas we would love to hear from you.