Cultural Happenings: Pumpkin Painting

The tradition of Jack-o-Lanterns in spooky season originates in Ireland with potatoes, but it has become a staple of contemporary US Halloween celebrations - farms host pumpkin patches for personalized pumpkin selection, families carve pumpkins to place on their porch, cities create massive pumpkin displays, and extreme carvers compete for a winning title. To share the Jack-o-Lantern tradition with our participants but without the goo and guts of a pumpkin, we painted the outside of pumpkins. Historically, Jack-O-Lanterns have faces, but today, pumpkins are decorated with any design of the artist’s imagination. We had both traditionalist and modern submissions to our decoration contest, and ultimately intern Evelin won the $25 prize!