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Thriller and back to Black themes light up the world of pumpkin carving

There have been some strange and wonderful pumpkin carvings this season, some homages portray the good and the great who have passed away in the last twelve months. The pumpkin geek has created a memorial to the late Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs as well as a fantastically realistic rendition of Michael Jackson, who is very much in the news. The trial of his former doctor, accused of killing the king of pop is ongoing. Trawling the web we have also discovered a beautiful carving of the Late Amy Winehouse by Michael Devill. Amy has also been in the news with the highely anticipated verdict (misadventure) at her inquest, last week. she died of alcohol related poisoning and respiratory failure last July in her Camden home. a brand new album of Winehouse material is set to be released just months after her death in time for Christmas. Billed as her third album, Lioness: Hidden Treasures has been principally assembled by two of the producers to have worked most closely with her, Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi. it comprises 12 tracks including previously unreleased material, alternative versions of existing songs and two new songs. it will be released on 5 December.in order to understand the origins of how pumpkin carving began and what it actually symbolises we must first take a look at Ireland and Britain. there is a long tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables, particularly the turnip, mangelwurzel, swede or rutabaga. The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America found the large native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much plumper making them easier to carve than turnips. while turnips have always been used in Ireland, lanterns in Scotland were originally fashioned from the thick stem of a cabbage plant, and were called “kail-runt torches”. it was not until 1837 that jack-o’-lantern appeared as a term for a carved vegetable lantern, and the carved pumpkin lantern association with Halloween is recorded in 1866.Halloween is based on an ancient Celtic holiday known as Samhain (pronounced “sow wan”), which means “summer’s end”. it was the end of the Celtic year, starting at sundown on October 31st and going through to sundown November 1st. it was a night to honor loved ones that had passed on. it was believed that the veil between their realm and ours was at it’s thinnest on this night. Halloween was Celebrated for centuries by many other nature based religions.The practice of carving glowing jack-o-lanterns,from turnips or gourds, which were placed in windows to welcome deceased loved ones, and act as protection against malevolent spirits. Burning lumps of coal were used inside as a source of light, later to be replaced by candles. When European settlers, came to America particularly the Irish, they imported the tradition with them. Halloween didn’t really catch on in the USA until the late 1800′s and it has only been widely reinvented in Europe as a result in the last 20 years.Pumpkins are indigenous to the western hemisphere and were completely unknown in Europe before the time of Columbus. in 1584, the French explorer Jacques Cartier reported from the St. Lawrence region that he had found “gros melons”, which was translated into English as “ponpions,” or pumpkins.  in fact, pumpkins have been grown in America for over 5,000 years. Native Americans called pumpkins “isquotersquash.” Pumpkins are not a vegetable – they are a fruit! Pumpkins, like gourds, and other varieties of squash are all members of the Cucurbitacae family , which also includes cucumbers, gherkins, and melons.