Halloween

A good harvest of pumpkin and the right tools are the 2 basic neccessities for pumpkin carving. Good harvest because it means getting a pumpkin for 69 cents and I say right tools because I broke about 2 knives the last time I carved a pumpkin. But this time the tools,teacher,company and weather all being right, it really turned out to be fun.



Apart from being fun, it marks the end of the harvest season and start of winter and daylight savings. Some explainations I have heard about the pumpkin carving tradition is that, people used to light lamps during winter as it used to get dark early. Due to a good pumkin harvest, they were good containers to light candles I guess. Soon people realised of the fun shapes they could put on the pumpkin to make it look more ornate. And hence came into existence the pumkin carving tradition.
Sybollically:
The carved pumpkin lit by a candle inside is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols in America and is commonly called a jack-o'-lantern. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to frighten off any superstitions.

As far as the wiki story behind it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween