About

Pumpkin Carving Art is the craft of carving images or patterns onto pumpkins. Traditionally known as jack-o-lanterns, photographs of intricately carved pumpkins are shared online every year around the beginning of autumn in celebration of Halloween.

Origin

Pumpkin carving evolved from carving potatoes and turnips in Ireland.^[2] The tradition was picked up in America in the early 1800s, coinciding with the American adoption of Halloween. On October 15th, 1999, EHow^[11] published a pumpkin carving guide titled "How to Carve a Pumpkin With Paper" in one of the earliest online mentions of pumpkin carvings.

Spread

One of the earliest videos uploaded online featuring pumpkin carving is a short film titled "The Life and Death of a Pumpkin." The video features a dramatic narrative around the carving of a jack-o-lantern and was uploaded by YouTuber BlameSociety^[3] on July 19th, 2006. As of October 2014, the video has gained over 2.5 million views.

On October 1st, 2008, Extreme Pumpkin Carving^[4] published a gallery of pumpking carving art.

On October 12th, 2009, redditor krisdafish created the subreddit r/Pumpkins,^[1] which features photos of pumpkin carving art, as of October 2014, the subreddit has gained over 1,000 readers.

On October 10th, 2010, Amusing Planet^[5] published a collection of pictures of pumpkins carved by New York sculpture Ray Villafane. The realistic carvings were also covered by CBS News^[6] and The Daily Mail.^[7] His pumpkin carving were also covered by many sites in 2011, including The Daily Beast^[8] and The Telegraph.^[9]

On October 16th, 2013, Pleated Jeans ^[10] published a list titled "The Art of Pumpkin Carving." On October 20th, 2015, ABC News^[12] published an article on pumpkin carving artist Edward Cabral, showcasing his work (example shown below). Two days later, Huffington Post^[13] showcased the work of 10 pumpkin artists on Instagram. The Guardian^[14] also covered pumpkin art that year.

The following year, Business Insider^[15] showcased the work of pumpkin artists (examples shown below). Metro.co.uk^[16] showcased the work of carver Alex Wer that year as well.

In 2017, Time^[17] and ABC30^[18] also ran features on pumpkin art.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References