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
Note: this post originally had 197 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
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...