Pumpkin Chucking

Pumpkin chunking (or Punkin' Chunkin' or pumpkin chucking) is hurling a pumpkin by mechanical means over great heights and distances in an attempt to hurl the pumpkin the farthest. Pumpkin chucking competitions, formal and informal, exist throughout the United States in the fall, when pumpkins are harvested , and a European Championship has been held in Bikschote, Belgium since 2004.

In order of increasing effectiveness, the devices include compound slingshots, catapults, trebuchets, and pneumatic air cannons. The last has fired pumpkins as far as 4434.28 feet (1,351 meters).

The range achieved by devices greatly depends on their mass, shape, and size; the yield limits, stiffnesses, pitch, and elevation of the hurler; and the wind speed.

Some pumpkin chunkers grow special firm pumpkins for use as a projectile, since sabots are often prohibited in competitions. These special pumpkins are often not good for eating.

A usual rule is that the pumpkin must remain whole after leaving the device for the chunking to count. Pumpkins that burst after leaving the barrel intact are referred to as "pumpkin pie in the sky").

World Championship

The World Championship Punkin' Chunkin' is name of an annual championship pumpkin-throwing contest held the first weekend after Halloween in Sussex County, Delaware. Competing teams construct and fire a variety of pumpkin-launching devices, including catapults, trebuchets, centrifugal machines, and pneumatic air cannons. Contestants compete in divisions against machines of the same type.

It started in 1986 in Millsboro. Due to the increasing space required as the machines are upgraded to fire the pumpkins farther, the event has moved several times from where it began. About 75 teams competed in the 2007 event, held outside Bridgeville near Coverdale, Delaware. That year the event drew more than 20,000 people and grossed more than $100,000 in ticket sales and associated revenues. More than 70% of that money will be donated to a variety of community organizations.

Each type of machine competes in different categories, including height, fan favorite, straightness, and most importantly, range. Each launcher counts the best of three shots. Launchers typically hurl white pumpkins because they can better withstand the forces of launch than the regular orange ones. Each chunk is then marked with a small, color coded flag by officials in the chunking zone on ATVs. The sole fatality of the contest has been a duck hit by a hurled pumpkin.

There is also a carnival area for spectators with amusement rides, food vendors and pumpkin recipes in a cooking contest.

History of the Jack o'Lantern

A jack-o'-lantern (sometimes also spelled Jack O'Lantern) is typically a carved pumpkin. It is associated chiefly with the holiday Halloween, and was named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called ignis fatuus or jack-o'-lantern. In a jack-o'-lantern, typically the top is cut off, and the inside flesh then scooped out; an image, usually a monstrous face, is carved onto the outside surface, and the lid replaced. At night a light (commonly a candle) is placed inside to illuminate the effect. The term is not particularly common outside North America, although the practice of carving lanterns for Halloween is.

A carved turnip.

Pumpkin Craft

Sections of the pumpkin are cut out to make a design, often depicting a face. A variety of tools may be used to carve and hollow out the gourd, ranging from simple knives and spoons to specialized instruments, typically sold in holiday sections of grocery stores. Printed stencils can be used as a guide for increasingly complex designs. It is possible to create surprisingly artistic designs, be they simple or intricate in nature. After carving, a light source (traditionally a candle, sometimes an electric light) is placed inside the pumpkin and the top is put back into place. The light illuminates the design from the inside. Sometimes a chimney is carved in. But towards the end of the 20th century, artists began expressing every kind of idea they could imagine on pumpkins. Today, it is common to see portraits of political candidates, celebrities and cartoon characters.

North American Tradition

Throughout Britain and Ireland, there is a long tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables, particularly the turnip, mangelwurzel, or swede. But not until 1837 does jack-o'-lantern appear as a term for a carved vegetable lantern, and the carved lantern does not become associated specifically with Halloween until 1866. Significantly, both occurred not in Britain or Ireland, but in North America. Historian David J. Skal writes:

Although every modern chronicle of the holiday repeats the claim that vegetable lanterns were a time-honored component of Halloween celebrations in the British Isles, none gives any primary documentation. In fact, none of the major nineteenth-century chronicles of British holidays and folk customs make any mention whatsoever of carved lanterns in connection with Halloween. Neither do any of the standard works of the early twentieth century. In America, the carved pumpkin was first associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween. The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was born in 1807, wrote in "The Pumpkin" (1850):

Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!

When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,

Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!

Folklore

An old Irish folk tale tells of Jack, a lazy yet shrewd farmer who uses a cross to trap the Devil. One story says that Jack tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree, and once he was up there Jack quickly placed crosses around the trunk or carved a cross into the bark, so that the Devil couldn't get down. Another myth says that Jack put a key in the Devil's pocket while he was suspended upside-down.

Another version of the myth says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers from whom he had stolen, when he met the Devil, who claimed it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (the Devil could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin/Devil disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet, only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped. In both myths, Jack only lets the Devil go when he agrees never to take his soul. After a while the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, his life had been too sinful for Jack to go to heaven; however, the Devil had promised not to take his soul, and so he was barred from hell as well. Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which was his favourite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-Lantern.

There are variations on the legend: Some versions include a "wise and good man", or even God helping Jack to prevail over the Devil. There are different versions of Jack's bargain with the Devil. Some variations say the deal was only temporary but the Devil, embarrassed and vengeful, refuses Jack entry to hell after Jack dies. Jack is considered a greedy man and is not allowed into either heaven or hell, without any mention of the Devil. Despite the colourful legends, the term jack-o'-lantern originally meant a night watchman, or man with a lantern, with the earliest known use in the mid-17th century; and later, meaning an ignis fatuus or will o' the wisp. In Labrador and Newfoundland, both names "Jacky Lantern" and "Jack the Lantern" refer to the will-o'-the-wisp concept rather than the pumpkin carving aspect.

The Black Plague

What a delightfully creepy image for a poster. It is available from here: Black Plague.

Vampire, by Victoria France

This image kind of creeps me out, I think I'd be scared to have it on my wall. It is available here: Vampire.

Red Witch Jolly Halloween

Onward, Noble Cat!

Kids with Giant Jack o' Lantern

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Here's wishing you a merry Hallowe'en!
This delightful image is available as a poster.