50 Times People Took Halloween Pumpkin Carving To A Whole New Level And Created These Masterpieces
Pumpkin carving is what you make of it. It's a fun (family) activity that helps you get into the Halloween spirit and is a great way to express your creativity, too.
The best thing about it is the freedom: you can go for something playful like your favorite meme, or a scary zombie, it's all up to you.
To give you a better idea of what's possible, we at Bored Panda compiled a list of our favorite jack-o'-lanterns. Enjoy!
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My Friend Is Awesome At Carving Pumpkins
That is so mesmerizing right down to the reflexion in the helmet and it has a shadow by it's feet. Super creative and talented carver!😍
Luigi's Mansion Pumpkin
This Halloween practice originated in Ireland, where large turnips and potatoes served as early canvasses. In fact, the very name, jack-o'-lantern, comes from an Irish myth about a man named Stingy Jack. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, home of the pumpkin, and it became an integral part of the spooky celebration.
According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. Remaining true to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his glass, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to pay for their order. But when the Devil obliged, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which would prevent the Devil from going back to his original form.
Jack eventually freed the Devil, but under the condition that he would not bother Jack for a whole year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul.
I Carved A Pumpkin
I Work In An Animation Studio With Some Of The Best Artists I’ve Ever Met And This Is The Pumpkin That Won Our Carving Contest Yesterday
My Husband's Pumpkin Carving
The next year, Jack tricked the Devil again. This time, by making him climb into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down. Now, the Devil had to promise not to bother Jack for ten more years.
Soon after, Jack died. As the legend has it, God didn't allow such an unsavory individual into heaven. But the Devil, who was still upset by the tricks Jack had played on him, kept his word and didn't claim Jack's soul.
So since Jack couldn't enter hell either, he ended up in the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since, thus earning the name "Jack of the Lantern," and later, simply "Jack O'Lantern."
Someone Got The Pumpkins Right
The Collector
My 16-Year-Old Niece’s Halloween Pumpkin Carving
In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns, carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them near windows or doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other evil spirits that might've also been wandering the night. In England, people used large beets.
Immigrants from these countries brought the tradition with them when they came to the US and soon discovered that pumpkins, a fruit native to their new home, make perfect jack-o'-lanterns.
Peter Peter The Pumpkin Eater
My Wife Won Her Office Pumpkin Decorating Contest After 5 Years Of Disappointment
I Carved A Dog-O-Lantern
My Sister Carved A Pumpkin Again
So My Friend Won A Pumpkin Carving Contest With This
My Friend Carves The Best Pumpkins, Half Of My Halloween Excitement Is Waiting To See What He's Come Up With, Here Is This Year's
Darling, It Will Be Bold. Dramatic
My 2014 Pumpkins: Harry vs. Voldemort
Gandalf vs. Balrog Pumpkin Carving "You Shall Not Paaaasss"
Unbelievable Viking Pumpkin
HOW?!? Just... H-O-W??? HOW do all these pumpkin shapers know how to do all these AMAZING things!!!
I Present The Trumpkin, 16 Hours, 56lbs, Three Pumpkins
I Carved This For Halloween. Expecto Pumpkin
I Carved It From Pumpkins
My Pumpkin Scares The Hell Out Of Me
Smashing Pumpkins
My Pumpkin Carving This Year
Anglerfish Pumpkin
My Little Sister's First Attempt At Pumpkin Carving. Her Talent Makes Me Sick Sometimes
Pumpkin Graveyard
Just Finished Decorating Our Annual Scary Pumpkin
There's not a carving in the whole world more terrifying than this...
Tonight, I Carved A Pumpkin. I Also Doused It In Lighter Fluid And Lit It On Fire
My Aunt Had A Pumpkin Contest At Work. Safe To Say She Won
I Just Finished My Pumpkin Carving. "The Mad Titan, Thanos"
For My Birthday, I Wanted To Show You Guys My Pumpkin
We Still Have This Small Pumpkin My Wife Carved 3 Years Ago
When You Don't Know What To Carve - Star Wars
My Pumpkins For Halloween This Year
The Perfect Jack O'Lantern Doesn't Exist...
My Wife’s Contribution For The Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest
Am I Spooky Yet?
My Work Friend Carved This In Our Annual Work Pumpkin Carving Contest, It Was His First Pumpkin And It Took Him 10 Hours
It’s Pumpkin Carving Season
I Carved The Scariest Pumpkin I Could Imagine
Entry For My Work's Pumpkin Decorating Contest
This Welding Pumpkin
Johnny Depp Pumpkin
One Of The Cooler Pumpkins Carvings I’ve Seen
This is incredible! At least that's how the eye of the beholder sees it.
I’ve Outdone Myself This Year
The Rosetta Stone Carved Into A Pumpkin
Proud Of My Submission For The Office Pumpkin Decorating Contest Today
What kind of office do you have? This definitely wouldn't be allowed any place I've ever worked.
Is My Rick And Morty Pumpkin Worthy Of Your Praise?
We Made This For A Pumpkin Decorating Contest At Work
A Few Cool Pumpkins From A Carving Contest In My Community
My Buddy's Jack O'Lantern This Year
That’s No Moon
WHOA! Please don’t be bummed that you aren’t getting more upvotes, people seem to get tired before the get this far down the list! Bravo!!
These Handmade Pumpkin Carvings
Pumpkin Carving Success
A Pumpkin Carved Into A Pumpkin
My First Time Carving A Pumpkin In Years. Love The End Result
Cool! Another member of the same family as #27 and #46. They make me smile :)
Minion Lovers, This Should Officially Be The Best Jack O'Lantern Ever
No One Even Notice My Pumpkin Last Night
I have never thought of doing a double sided carving, but after see these I want to try it now. That is so cool.
"Predator" - A Carving On A Tremendous 257 Kg Pumpkin
I Carved My First Pumpkin. His Name Is Murphy And I’m Obsessed With Him
My 2020 Pumpkin Carving, "Pennywise... The Dancing Clown!"
My Friend Just Posted This Pumpkin Carving On Facebook
My Wife's First Attempt At Painting Pumpkins. They Came Out Ok
These "Up" Pumpkins
Rawr
My First Pumpkin Of The Year. Wednesday Addams Giving Some Epic Side-Eye
Really Surprised How Well My Pumpkin Carving Turned Out
I Think I've Found My Calling. Here's Pumpkin Attempt #3
If You Pick Your Pumpkins Right, They Turn Into Shrunken Heads In The Las Vegas Heat. Ready For October
This Pumpkin Gave Me Nightmares Last Night And I Made The Damn Thing
Second Attempt At Pumpkin Carving
When You Putin A Lot Of Effort Into Carving
My Friend's Dad Is A Dentist. This Is His Pumpkin For Halloween
Finished My 2017 Halloween Pumpkin
"And Then He Greeted Death As An Old Friend, And Went With Him Gladly, And, Equals, They Departed This Life.” The Tale Of The Three Brothers, Both Pumpkins Together
First Pumpkin Of The Year And He Unintentionally Ended Up Looking A Bit Like Mike Wachowski From "Monsters, Inc."
Halloween Pumpkin Carving
My Girlfriend Made This "Demogourdgon" Pumpkin For The Office Pumpkin Contest And Won 1st Place
The Second Time Carving Maleficent. This Time The Angelina Jolie Version
My GF Carved This Last Night. Don't Think A Lot Of People Will Recognize It But I'm Sure It'll Be Appreciated Here
How could one not recognize this? It's the Tale of the Three Brothers from HP ;)
My Brothers Yearly Pumpkin
My Contribution To The Keene Pumpkin Festival
"My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the gourd!" It's fantastic! It looks like it's singing loud and proud!
My Pumpkin Don't Feel So Good
One Of The Scariest Pumpkins I've Seen Yet
My 3-Year-Old Son Wanted Me To Make Him A "Scary Pumpkin". Pretty Happy With How It Came Out
So It Turns Out That Leaving A Jack O'Lantern Next To A Tree Where Squirrels Can Eat Away Its Face Results In The Most Terrifying Pumpkin Ever
My 9-Year-Old Daughter’s Idea: Human Spice Latte
First Time Carving A Pumpkin & I’m 22. Dropped The Little Pumpkin But The Crack Makes It Better
My Dad Carved The Best Pumpkin And I Thought It Needs To Be Shared Somehow
I Painted A Dutch Pottery Style Pumpkin
Pumpkins That Were Grown In A Mould
Very Proud Of My Pumpkin This Year
Pumpkin Carving Went Plus Ultra This Year
Zombie Pumpkin. This One Was Tough, But Love How It Turned Out
I Made A "The Thing" Pumpkin. It Only Took An Unreasonable Amount Of Time
You Guys Enjoyed My Wife's Pumpkins Last Year. Here Is The 2017 Edition
My Girlfriend Had A Pumpkin Carving Contest At Work
It's Friday Tomorrow Witches. Took Me Forever To Carve This
My Attempt At Fulfilling My Daughter's Request For An Anglerfish Pumpkin
Breaking Bad Pumpkin
I Call This “Here Comes The Sloth”
Six Hours Later, My First Try At Surface Carving A Pumpkin
My First Attempt At A 3D Pumpkin Carving, How'd I Do?
Great job. I wish I could do something close to that. I'm not good at it!
It's Not Much, But I'm Kinda Proud Of My Bob's Burgers Jack O'Lanterns
The Pumpkin My Dad Submitted To His Office Pumpkin Contest A Couple Years Ago
My Girlfriend Entered A Pumpkin Contest. Win Or Lose, I Say She Nailed It
Not An Artist By Any Means But I'm Pretty Proud Of My Pumpkin This Year
Found Some Candles. Here's My Steve Buscemi Pumpkin. Did I Capture His Eyes?
Ready For The Office Pumpkin Contest (This Time With The Candle)
Why So Serious?
Graveyard Pumpkin Diorama
I Stepped Up My Pumpkin Sculpting Game With A Bigger Pumpkin Today
My First Pumpkin Carving. A Tiger Jack O'Lantern
My Friend Carved These Hocus Pocus Pumpkins And Put Glow Sticks In Them So They Glow Different Colors
Blazing Pumpkins
I Know You Guys Have Seen A Lot Of Jack O'Lanterns Lately, But Here's My Buddy's From Last Night
A Bit Better With The Lights On
I Carved Geralt Onto A Pumpkin This Year
This Pumpkin That I Carved Yesterday
My Jack O'Lantern Turned Out Pretty Good
Family Pumpkin Carving Got A Little Competitive
Lil' baby pumpkin looks so scared 😱 and very well should be judging by the looks of what's eating him! Eye spy with my little eye a plump and juicy human thigh!
My Girlfriend's Submission For The Office Pumpkin Carving Contest
I Carved A Pumpkin Today
Since Everybody Else Is Doing One
Happy Halloween. Charon Pumpkin Carving
Kills 99.9% Of Hopes And Dreams
I Carved A BB8 Pumpkin. This Is Him Now
I Carved A Few Pumpkins
My Giant Cheshire Cat Pumpkin. I’m Frazzled From How Much Energy It Took To Move That Monster
I Carved A Pumpkin This Weekend
I Carved This Pumking. What Do Yall Think?
Terrifying. An Entry Into The Neighborhood Pumpkin Carving Contest
Scarier than any other pumpkin. This one will give me nightmares! ;-)
Giant Smiler
Pumpkin Parasite In Action
Found This Weird Double Pumpkin And Had To Do It
My Minion Pumpkin
Pumpktris
I Decided To Carve A Pumpkin
The Scariest Idea I Could Think Of For A Spooky Pumpkin
AAHH NOOOOoooooo..... il do anything... make it stop! please make it stop!
This Is My Entry To The 2018 Blizzard Pumpkin Contest, Not Quite How I Imagined But I'm Still Proud
Pumpkin I Carved Of My Fiancée And I For Our Wedding
Extremely cool, they must be very proud of the work that went into it!
Since 2012 I’ve Been Making My Pumpkins A Bit Differently
This Little Pumpkin I Carved
Expecto Pumptronus. A Harry Potter-Themed Jack O'Lantern
My Team's Entry Into Our Company's Annual Pumpkin Decorating Contest
My Pumpkin Carving Might Be Recognizable To Some Of You
Really Happy With My Pumpkin This Year
Member Pumpkins Again?
This Jack O'Lantern With Mold Growing From Inside
My Wife Was Not Thrilled With My Pumpkin Carving This Year
I Did Not Win The Company Pumpkin Carving Contest
My Son Wanted A Thomas The Train Pumpkin For Halloween. I May Have Gone Overboard
My Dad Just Lasered This Onto A Pumpkin
I Work In A Call Center For Customer Service, And Our Department Entered This Pumpkin Into The Contest That Was Held For Halloween. We Won
My Friend Carved The Scariest Thing He Could Imagine Into His Pumpkin This Year
Thought I'd Share This Halloween Pumpkin Decoration Of Bob Ross From Work
Girlfriend’s Pumpkin Blew Me Away
Big Green Keg Pumpkin DIY
My Entry For The Office Pumpkin Contest. Donald Trumpkin
My Pumpkin For This Year's Contest. Holy Hot Glue Sticks, Batman
Pumpkin Eye Ballz
Hocus Pocus Or Mucus Pukus?
I Carved A Pumpkin
My Barber's Angler Fish Pumpkin
Found At My Works Pumpkin Decoration Contest
My Submission To The GW2 Pumpkin Carving Contest
This Carved Pumpkin
My Girlfriend Made This Amazing Pumpkin For Halloween
My Attempt At A Minecraft Jack O'Lantern
My Little Shop Of Horrors Decorated Pumpkin 2017
There is a pumpkin in the lower plant with no hand. No puncture or carving allowed. All handmade. Tell me what you think!
No One At The Carving Party Knew Who These Guys Were - But I Bet You Guys Will
My Pumpkin Contest Entry
Pre-Halloween Pumpkin Carving
Finished Carving A Totoro Pumpkin Just In Time For Halloween
Scariest Pumpkin Carving Ever
I Carved A Truth Pumpkin. Happy Halloween Everyone
Carved This Last Night
My Submission For The Office Pumpkin Decorating Contest This Year
So epic, Randy microwaved his testicles to get cancer so he could get a medicinal Marijuana card and smoke weed. He brags to the other men in town about how the women in town love his enlarged testicles, so every man gets testicular cancer so theirs will be enlarged as well and uses them as bouncing balls for transportation to bounce to and from where they're going. How insane 😳
My Nephew Has A Pumpkin Contest At School. He Better Win
Got The Night King Pumpkin Carving Complete. Pretty Happy With How It Turned Out. Took About 6 Hours In Total To Gut, Carve And Shade. I Love October
Do You Want To Know How I Got These Carves?
For Five Years Now I’ve Been Painting Classic Goosebumps Covers On Pumpkins. Here Is The First One Of The Season
Easily My Best Pumpkin Yet
Happy Halloween. Our Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest Brings Out The Creativity In Our Team Members
The Hash Slinging Slasher
Pumpkin Riiiiiick (And Morty)
My 8-Year-Old Daughter Entered This Junimo Pumpkin Into Her School's Pumpkin Decorating Contest
A Little Late, But Here's My Totoro Pumpkin From This Year
It May Not Be Anywhere Near Perfect But I Am Geeking Out Over My BB8 Pumpkin Chilling On My Doorstep This Year
Just Bought Some Calls On $pumpkin
My Attempt At The Isaac Jack O'Lantern
I Tried Carving Keanu Reeves' Face Into A Pumpkin, But Instead, I Created A Horrible Abomination
Thanos And The Infinity Pumpkin
We Had A Pumpkin Decorating Contest At Work Today. My Team Is Sassy
My dad's company had a pumpkin carving contest last year where you had to send in photos of your carved pumpkins from home, so naturally the employees' families participated as well. My brother decided to print out a blue screen error message and tape it to a pumpkin while he carved the :( face onto the side of it. The best part was that he secretly changed the QR code from the original image so if you scanned it, it led you to the YouTube video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." My little brother rickrolled the owner of the company.
This is still one of my favourite carves that I've done, from 2013. 2013-10-26...299e50.jpg
The only "professional" commission I've ever gotten - a local brewery asked me to carve pumpkins for them one year. This was one of them. 2013-10-24...b593ae.jpg
I gave up carving. Now I take off the top, clean out the pumpkin, fill it with water and citric acid powder, and every so often, toss in baking powder "pods" colored with certain food dyes. We have the erupting pumpkin. And we're happy with it. Last year, also did a diet coke and mentos pumpkin (small hole on top, just drilled it). Way more fun than carving!
I wouldn't even know where to start with pumpkin carving. I can just about manage two eyes, a nose and mouth.
The traditional triangle eyes and nose with the zig-zag jaggity mouth is still my favorite!
Load More Replies...Some of these are so creative. I would love to learn how to do this. There are a lot of copies of copies of copies... the pumpkin biting the small pumpkin, always on the same side of the mouth; the charging bar; the tiny face; but mostly these are original and so well executed.
These are all amazing, I love getting to see how creative people get with their pumpkin carving.
Some of these are really good...not quite believing some of the "my first time carving a pumpkin " stories though....
I knew my friend was having trouble finding inspiration for a pumpkin, I sent her this. Very excited to see what she does!
Check out my uncle Ray Duey online. He carved all the pumpkins on the porch in the 1st season of "American Horror Story" and did the Halloween display at the White House that year.
Its such a shame that all these art pieces have to go moldy after Halloween
Love the dog image pumpkin. When I was a kid, pumpkins were not scary, just fun. Halloween was pin the tail on the donkey and bobbing for apples. Fun kid stuff. In my sixth decade, I now despise this holiday, especially since all my candy eating turned me into an insulin dependent diabetic! I say Halloween is horrific for a healthy body and a positive spirit!
I think I was here at the moment it got shortened from 197 images to 50...
Is it just me or some themes are repetitive? Esp burger-pumpkin, expecto patronus, simple eyes'n'mouth holes, tiger, biting tiny pumpkin, painted reproductions? Did some people post several times?
The fancy ones are definitely impressive and take some skill to make, but at the same time i kinda feel like they're missing the point. But also, wasting food like this is ridiculous.
I’m curious what “the point” is in your opinion? Good wholesome fun is all these people are participating in. I’ve never met a person with a pumpkin heavy diet.
Load More Replies...Says the resident Buzzfeed troll with over 1,298 downvotes.
Load More Replies...My dad's company had a pumpkin carving contest last year where you had to send in photos of your carved pumpkins from home, so naturally the employees' families participated as well. My brother decided to print out a blue screen error message and tape it to a pumpkin while he carved the :( face onto the side of it. The best part was that he secretly changed the QR code from the original image so if you scanned it, it led you to the YouTube video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." My little brother rickrolled the owner of the company.
This is still one of my favourite carves that I've done, from 2013. 2013-10-26...299e50.jpg
The only "professional" commission I've ever gotten - a local brewery asked me to carve pumpkins for them one year. This was one of them. 2013-10-24...b593ae.jpg
I gave up carving. Now I take off the top, clean out the pumpkin, fill it with water and citric acid powder, and every so often, toss in baking powder "pods" colored with certain food dyes. We have the erupting pumpkin. And we're happy with it. Last year, also did a diet coke and mentos pumpkin (small hole on top, just drilled it). Way more fun than carving!
I wouldn't even know where to start with pumpkin carving. I can just about manage two eyes, a nose and mouth.
The traditional triangle eyes and nose with the zig-zag jaggity mouth is still my favorite!
Load More Replies...Some of these are so creative. I would love to learn how to do this. There are a lot of copies of copies of copies... the pumpkin biting the small pumpkin, always on the same side of the mouth; the charging bar; the tiny face; but mostly these are original and so well executed.
These are all amazing, I love getting to see how creative people get with their pumpkin carving.
Some of these are really good...not quite believing some of the "my first time carving a pumpkin " stories though....
I knew my friend was having trouble finding inspiration for a pumpkin, I sent her this. Very excited to see what she does!
Check out my uncle Ray Duey online. He carved all the pumpkins on the porch in the 1st season of "American Horror Story" and did the Halloween display at the White House that year.
Its such a shame that all these art pieces have to go moldy after Halloween
Love the dog image pumpkin. When I was a kid, pumpkins were not scary, just fun. Halloween was pin the tail on the donkey and bobbing for apples. Fun kid stuff. In my sixth decade, I now despise this holiday, especially since all my candy eating turned me into an insulin dependent diabetic! I say Halloween is horrific for a healthy body and a positive spirit!
I think I was here at the moment it got shortened from 197 images to 50...
Is it just me or some themes are repetitive? Esp burger-pumpkin, expecto patronus, simple eyes'n'mouth holes, tiger, biting tiny pumpkin, painted reproductions? Did some people post several times?
The fancy ones are definitely impressive and take some skill to make, but at the same time i kinda feel like they're missing the point. But also, wasting food like this is ridiculous.
I’m curious what “the point” is in your opinion? Good wholesome fun is all these people are participating in. I’ve never met a person with a pumpkin heavy diet.
Load More Replies...Says the resident Buzzfeed troll with over 1,298 downvotes.
Load More Replies...