Pumpkin Carving Is Art, And If Anyone Disagrees, Just Show Them These 50 Amazing Pumpkin Masterpieces

Take notes - inspiration overdose coming up... because surely you've never seen anything quite like these before.

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• April 5, 2022

What you carve out of a pumpkin is entirely up to you. It's a fun (family) project that gets you in the mood for Halloween while also allowing you to exhibit your creativity.

The best part is the flexibility: you may go for something lighthearted like your favorite meme or a terrifying zombie. It's entirely up to you.

A carved turnip, pumpkin, or other root vegetable lantern is known as a jack-o'-lantern. The phenomena of unusual lights flickering above peat bogs, known as will-o'-the-wisps or jack-o'-lanterns, inspired the name.

The name is also connected to the Irish mythology of Stingy Jack, a drunken who makes a deal with Satan and is sentenced to wander the Earth with only a hollowed turnip to guide him. Pumpkin carving has become a yearly Halloween custom in the United States, thanks to Irish immigrants who took their root vegetable carving tradition with them.

And thanks to this interesting custom, we get to enjoy the most amazing carvings each year. We've gathered a collection of our favorite jack-o'-lanterns to give you a better idea of what's possible.

We hope you will find them interesting, but also inspirational. We may feature your work in one of our next articles.

So, without further ado, let's start:

1. "I Carved It From Pumpkins"

2. "My Pumpkins For Halloween This Year"

3. "Darling, It Will Be Bold. Dramatic"

4. "Unbelievable Viking Pumpkin"

5. "The Rosetta Stone Carved Into A Pumpkin"

6. "Anglerfish Pumpkin"

7. "Proud Of My Submission For The Office Pumpkin Decorating Contest Today"

8. "My Little Sister's First Attempt At Pumpkin Carving. Her Talent Makes Me Sick Sometimes"

9. "Entry For My Work's Pumpkin Decorating Contest"

10. "Tonight, I Carved A Pumpkin. I Also Doused It In Lighter Fluid And Lit It On Fire"

11. "For My Birthday, I Wanted To Show You Guys My Pumpkin"

12. "Smashing Pumpkins"

13. "Luigi's Mansion Pumpkin"

14. "I Carved A Dog-O-Lantern"

15. "Someone Got The Pumpkins Right"

16. "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"

17. "Is My Rick And Morty Pumpkin Worthy Of Your Praise?"

18. "Peter Peter The Pumpkin Eater"

19. "Gandalf vs. Balrog Pumpkin Carving "You Shall Not Paaaasss""

20. "My Friend Is Awesome At Carving Pumpkins"

21. "One Of The Cooler Pumpkins Carvings I’ve Seen"

22. "I Just Finished My Pumpkin Carving. "The Mad Titan, Thanos""

23. "Just Finished Decorating Our Annual Scary Pumpkin"

24. "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"

25. "I’ve Outdone Myself This Year"

26. "My Aunt Had A Pumpkin Contest At Work. Safe To Say She Won"

27. "We Still Have This Small Pumpkin My Wife Carved 3 Years Ago"

28. "The Collector"

29. "I Present The Trumpkin, 16 Hours, 56lbs, Three Pumpkins"

30. "My Work Friend Carved This In Our Annual Work Pumpkin Carving Contest, It Was His First Pumpkin And It Took Him 10 Hours"

31. "My Wife’s Contribution For The Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest"

32. "My 16-Year-Old Niece’s Halloween Pumpkin Carving"

33. "This Welding Pumpkin"

34. Hey, Elmo

35. "My Sister Carved A Pumpkin Again"

36. "Pumpkin Graveyard"

37. "My Pumpkin Carving This Year"

38. "My Husband's Pumpkin Carving"

39. "I Carved A Pumpkin"

40. "My Wife Won Her Office Pumpkin Decorating Contest After 5 Years Of Disappointment"

41. "It’s Pumpkin Carving Season"

42. "We Made This For A Pumpkin Decorating Contest At Work"

43. "My 2014 Pumpkins: Harry vs. Voldemort"

44. "I Carved The Scariest Pumpkin I Could Imagine"

45. "My Pumpkin Scares The Hell Out Of Me"

46. "Am I Spooky Yet?"

47. "Johnny Depp Pumpkin"

48. "When You Don't Know What To Carve - Star Wars"

49. "So My Friend Won A Pumpkin Carving Contest With This"

50. "I Carved This For Halloween. Expecto Pumpkin"

According to legend, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to join him for a drink. Stingy Jack, true to his name, refused to pay for his glass, so he persuaded the Devil to transform himself into a coin, which Jack could use to pay for their order.

When the Devil agreed, Jack kept the money and placed it in his pocket alongside a silver cross, which would prevent the Devil from reverting to his previous shape.

The Devil was eventually let free, but only on the condition that he does not harass Jack for a year and that he does not claim Jack's soul if he died.

Jack deceived the Devil once more the following year. This time, he was forced to climb into a tree in order to pluck a piece of fruit.

Jack cut a cross into the tree's bark while up in the tree to prevent the Devil from descending. The Devil now had to vow that he would not trouble Jack for another 10 years.

Jack died not long after. According to legend, God wouldn't let such a nefarious person enter heaven.

The Devil, however, who was still irritated by Jack's antics, kept his word and did not claim Jack's soul. So he was doomed to roam the earth forever.

It's a spooky story, but it has inspired such wonderful works of art.

Damjan