Latinitas - Pumpkin Carving

Latinitas: The webzine for and by Latina girls

Art: Jack ’O Lantern Mania

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By Eliana Bernard

My favorite part of Halloween is getting all of my friends and family together for a pumpkin carving night! I love to see all of the simple and intricate designs that everyone comes up with. It is something that you can do to have a good time, and it is a fun bonding experience. Here are the materials that you need and a few easy steps to follow:

Materials:

Pumpkin
Paper/Stencil (it can be something printed off the Internet or get creative and design it yourself!)
Pumpkin poker or small nail
Pumpkin saw or serrated knife
Pumpkin scoop or a spoon
Tea light or artificial lights (i.e. battery operated light or glow sticks)

Instructions:
Step 1: Carve a hole at the top of the pumpkin around the stem. Make sure you carve it at an angle so that the top doesn’t fall into the pumpkin.

Step 2: Clean out your pumpkin! This is the fun part, but it can also be really messy. Use the pumpkin scoop or a large spoon to scoop out the seeds inside the pumpkin. Make sure that you lay out newspaper under your pumpkin so that you can clean up easily.

Step 3: Mark your design. Tape or pin the paper with your design on it to the pumpkin. Make point marks using the pumpkin poker, or small nail, to outline your design on your pumpkin.

Step 4: Cut out your design. Use the pumpkin saw or knife to carve out your design. Be careful that you carve out what you want to see when you light your pumpkin. Everything that you don’t cut out will remain unlit.

Step 5: Light your pumpkin! You can place a tea light in your pumpkin, but just make sure that you never leave a lit candle unsupervised. Using artificial lights such as battery-operated pumpkin lights or glow sticks are safer options to consider.

Once all of the pumpkins are lit, it’s always fun to turn off the lights in the room and look at all of the neat designs. Happy Halloween!

October 2009

* Photo on magazine cover is courtesy of Elvis Santana