During Halloween celebrations, people traditionally decorate their homes with a wide variety of pumpkins. These can be cute little crafts or huge grinning monsters. Making a traditional Halloween decoration with your own hands is not difficult. In addition, the vegetable can be used for decoration and home decoration.
Below you will find useful and practical answers to the following questions: why a pumpkin is a symbol of Halloween, how to carve it for a holiday with your own hands, how to make it beautiful and interesting.
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Why the pumpkin is a symbol of Halloween
Probably each of us has ever wondered what a pumpkin for Halloween means. An old Irish legend explains the origin of the modern Halloween symbol.
It tells the story of a cunning drunkard blacksmith Jack, who twice trapped Satan himself.Wanting to free himself, the deceived devil was forced to promise Jack not to interfere in his life and not take his soul after death.
When Jack died, he could not go to heaven or hell. Both God and Satan, true to his word, closed their possessions to him. At parting, the devil threw a small coal to Jack so that his restless soul could light his way. Jack put the coal in the pumpkin, protecting it from the rain, and went to roam the earth in anticipation of the Day of Judgment.
Interesting! Halloween pumpkin is called Jack's lantern (or lantern).
This is how a vegetable with a spark inside became a symbol of the soul, which cannot find peace after death. Thus, such a mysterious story has developed.
In addition, many people traditionally associate a vegetable with the autumn harvest, and someone believes that a light and an evil face scare away evil spirits, which, according to beliefs, cross the border between the world of the living and the dead on the night of October 31 to November 1.
Agree that this story makes you want to carve a pumpkin for Halloween even more!
What you need to create Jack Lantern
To transform an ordinary vegetable into a magic lantern, you need to arm yourself with some tools. To create your own Halloween pumpkin yourself, you will need:
- orange or yellow vegetable;
- knives (preferably of different sizes and lengths);
- awl;
- marker;
- printed template (different templates are waiting for you at the very end of the article!);
- a spoon with sharp edges, a scraper;
- Scotch;
- scissors;
- candle, flashlight or garland.
These items will help to properly cut and make the main attribute for the holiday.
To make the lantern look beautiful, you need to choose the right vegetable. Pay attention to its appearance. It should be even and smooth, free from dents, scratches and other defects.
When choosing live vegetables, pay attention to their shape and color. It is better that the color of the plant is uniform, and the shape is correct and proportional. The pumpkin should not be rotten, its surface should be firm, without dents. You can buy a live pumpkin for Halloween in the store and at the market.
By the way! The room will be even more interesting if you make both large and small lanterns for the holiday.
Note! The larger the pumpkin, the more beautiful the Halloween lamp will turn out, however, it will take much longer to work.
On the other hand, it is inconvenient to carve Halloween faces on a small surface of a pumpkin, so the average size will be optimal.
How to carve a pumpkin for Halloween
After choosing and purchasing the most beautiful pumpkin, start creating your Halloween decoration. How to carve a pumpkin for Halloween? The process will become simple and straightforward if you follow the step-by-step instructions.
- Step 1. First you need to decide what you want to illuminate the lantern from the inside... If you want to make a Halloween pumpkin decoration with a candle, you need to make a hole on top. To do this, cut a piece in the shape of a cone from the top so that the lid does not fall inside. If there is a garland or a flashlight inside, it is better to cut the bottom.
- Step 2. Then you need to clean the pumpkin for Halloween... All contents are removed from it: bones, pulp, inner part of the peel. A knife, spoon, or scraper is used to peel a Halloween pumpkin. The most convenient way to clean with your hands, this option is suitable for those who are not afraid to get dirty. Scrape thoroughly where the "face" of the pumpkin will be. This will make it easier to cut.
- Step 3. After you clean the pumpkin, you need to take the already printed pumpkin template for Halloween and tape it to the skin... With the help of an awl, the contour of the face of the lantern is transferred with dots to the surface of the vegetable (as in the picture below). Before cutting, points can be connected with a marker.
- Step 4. Cut out the required parts with a knife... If there are small elements in the picture, you can use a clerical knife. You need to carefully cut the pumpkin so that unnecessary cuts or defects do not appear on the decoration.
Important! If you are making a flashlight with children, be especially careful so that none of the toddlers injure themselves or others.
- Step 5. You can treat the Halloween pumpkin from the inside with aromatic spices (cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, rosemary, mint, star anise, lavender, sage, oregano, thyme, vanilla) or pour coffee beans, orange and tangerine peels, cinnamon sticks inside. The warmth of the candle will make Jack's pumpkin fragrant throughout the house.
- Step 6. To make a full-fledged Jack's head out of the pumpkin at the end, you need to add lighting... The candle is placed in a pumpkin with the top cut off. The height of the candle should not be too high so that the pumpkin does not bake over an open fire. For small items, tablet candles are perfect. Several holes can be made in the lid to allow hot air to escape.
- An electronic candle or flashlight can be an alternative to a regular wax candle. It is more convenient to put them on a flat surface, and on top "put on" a pumpkin without a bottom. Another option is garland: regular, flashing or multicolored. When connecting the garland to the mains, you also need to use a vegetable without a bottom, then the wire will not be noticeable.
- Step 7: Place your halloween lantern in a prominent place in your homewhere guests and friends can admire him.
Photo of a step-by-step execution of a pumpkin for Halloween:
Video: how to carve a pumpkin for Halloween.
What else can you make from a vegetable
As already noted, a Halloween pumpkin can be a wonderful decor item, you just need to be creative in the design. If the process involves young children who should not be given a knife, there are a lot of interesting things you can do. For example, a Halloween pumpkin can be funny, kind, or interesting, bright and colorful.
By the way! To make an interesting pumpkin with your own hands, you don't have to cut it out. There are many other original ideas out there!
How to decorate a pumpkin for Halloween?First, the pumpkin can be simply dyed... To do this, you need to choose a white or light yellow vegetable - this will make the paint more beautiful. How else can you decorate a vegetable for Halloween?
- Paint in pastel colors.
- Take 7 small fruits and paint them rainbow colors.
- Make a gradient color.
- Place black, white and bright orange lanterns around the house.
- Decorate the vegetable with black and white stripes, cages or polka dots.
- Decorate the Halloween pumpkin with colorful handprints.
- Draw a face with paints instead of cutting.
- Paint like a large donut with colored glaze and powder.
- Cover the vegetable with fluorescent paint to make it glow at night.
- Decorate with cobwebs and spiders.
- Depict an autumn landscape or still life.
These are not all options for Halloween pumpkin crafts, you can think of even more yourself.
Second, you can paint the Halloween pumpkin with wax crayons.... A very interesting and beautiful effect will turn out when using this technique: a lot of wax crayons are laid out at the cutting itself. You can arrange them in a chaotic manner or create a gradient so that the colors flow smoothly into each other.
After that, you need to take a regular hair dryer and direct a stream of warm air onto the crayons. The wax will melt and run off the surface of the vegetable, forming fancy rainbow smudges.
By the way! The child will like to transform the vegetable into a famous cartoon character: Nemo the fish, Jack Skellington, Mickey Mouse, Olaf the snowman, the minion and other heroes of their favorite cartoons. A vegetable can be transformed into any bird or animal.Generallypumpkin designs for Halloween lots of.
You can also decorate the Halloween pumpkin with various decorative elements to give it a festive look or turn it into a real work of art. As such elements are used:
- buttons of all colors and sizes;
- beads;
- tapes;
- bows;
- lace;
- sequins and rhinestones;
- the cloth;
- paper applications;
- Garlands;
- twine;
- sackcloth;
- autumn flowers.
On a Halloween pumpkin, you can:with markers to draw funny and kind faces, write funny inscriptions on the peel, and use the vegetable itself as a beautiful vase or basket for flowers and sweets. To make a basket, you need to carefully cut out a handle, and if you cut out doors and windows instead, you get a little sweet house.
How to save a pumpkin for Halloween
Many people wonder how long a Halloween pumpkin is kept. Usually within 3-5 days. However, the holiday atmosphere usually reigns in the house not one, but several days - before and after the holiday. Therefore, it is nice if you manage to keep the Halloween lantern as long as possible, because it is a very beautiful and interesting decoration that is pleasant to admire.
To keep your Halloween pumpkin as long as possible, follow these tips:
- Initially, choose a beautiful and undamaged vegetable.
- Remove the pulp from the vegetable to the maximum: the more pulp, the faster it will deteriorate.
- If the fruit begins to deteriorate, it should be placed in cold water for several hours.
- For the safety of such a decor item, you need to process cuts with petroleum jelly.
- Jack's lantern for Halloween should be started 1 (maximum 2) days before the holiday, so the vegetable will definitely not have time to deteriorate.
Now you know how to cut a vegetable for Halloween with your own hands and create an original decoration for All Saints Day. The Halloween beauty is not only a beautiful and unusual piece of furniture, it is also a wonderful opportunity to show your creative nature, bring to life the most unusual ideas and spend some time with loved ones.
Video: DIY pumpkin for Halloween.
DIY Halloween pumpkin photos for inspiration and new ideas
Halloween is a very interesting holiday that gives both adults and children the opportunity to plunge into the world of fantasy and creativity. Therefore, you have to choose - to make a scary and terrible pumpkin for Halloween, or a beautiful, cute and funny one. Below you can see pictures of different options for Halloween and get some inspiration or ideas for yourself.
Pictures of beautiful pumpkins for Halloween
The photo below is a great example of how a Halloween lantern can be very fun and interesting.
Cute Halloween smiles will give you a great mood and decorate absolutely any room.
Pictures of the scariest pumpkins on Halloween
A horrible and gloomy Halloween lantern that eats a smaller brother.
And here is what an evil and custom Halloween lantern can be:
Face stencils and templates
It is much more convenient to cut a Halloween vegetable using a stencil. The finished drawing will help you do this most accurately and beautifully. You can cut a festive attribute for Halloween using ready-made stencils or those that you yourself drew.
Below you can choose your favorite Halloween pumpkin stencil and print it on your printer:
Thank you very much for this article !!! My child and I got an unforgettable experience from the process of creating this miracle in the kitchen !!!))) It is indescribable !!!