{"id":8375,"date":"2017-08-24T10:30:37","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T17:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/?p=8375"},"modified":"2017-08-24T10:30:37","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T17:30:37","slug":"pumpkins-halloween-symbols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/pumpkins-halloween-symbols\/","title":{"rendered":"Pumpkins as Halloween Symbols"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Halloween<\/a>Pumpkins and jack o\u2019lanterns have become an almost universal symbol of Halloween.\u00a0 But how did this come to pass?<\/p>\n

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According to History.com, modern Halloween comes from the Irish festival Samhain, an occasion that marked the passage from the summer harvest season to the dark of winter. Tradition dictated huge bonfires be built in fields, and it was believed that fairy spirits lurked in the shadows. To distract these spirits from settling into houses and farms, people would carve rudimentary faces into large turnips, and set candles inside. The turnip lanterns would rest along roadways and next to gates, to both light the way for travelers and caution any passing fairies against invading.<\/p>\n

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The celebration of Halloween in America didn\u2019t take off until waves of immigrants from Ireland and Scotland arrived in the mid-1800s. Pumpkins are native to North America, so while it\u2019s not known exactly when the first pumpkin was carved and lit, the first mention of pumpkins jack o\u2019lanterns comes at around the same time. In 1866, the children\u2019s magazine \u201cHarper\u2019s Young People\u201d reported that \u201ca great sacrifice of pumpkins\u201d had been made that for that year\u2019s Halloween celebrations. Pumpkin carving grew more and more popular as the years went on. By the 1920s, Halloween had been embraced throughout the United States. Parties and costumes became the norm, and \u201ctrick or treating\u201d soon followed in the mid-1930s.<\/p>\n

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As pumpkin carving grew into a multi-million dollar industry, American farmers began to examine the specific types of pumpkins they grew, and bred new lines of squash specifically for carving. Massachusetts farmer John Howden developed the Howden pumpkin in the 1960s, and it is still the most popular carving pumpkin in America. However, the very things that make the Howden perfect for Halloween (thick stem, shallow ribs, thin flesh in relation to size) make it less than ideal for eating. Meanwhile, varieties like the Sugar Pie, Kabocha, and Carnival make for better eating, and are enjoying a renaissance at farmers\u2019 markets and tables across the country.<\/p>\n

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If Halloween and jack o\u2019lanterns make you think about ghostly apparitions and communicating with the \u201cother side,\u201d visit the\u00a0PsychicDirectory<\/u>.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find a\u00a0free psychic hotline<\/u>,\u00a0free psychic tests, esp psychics, palm reading history\u00a0<\/u>and loads of other resources to explore the mysteries of Halloween.\u00a0 Why not visit today?<\/p>\n

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Pumpkins and jack o\u2019lanterns have become an almost universal symbol of Halloween.\u00a0 But how did this come to pass?   According to History.com, modern Halloween comes from the Irish festival Samhain, an occasion that marked the passage from the summer harvest season to the dark of winter. Tradition dictated huge bonfires be built in fields,… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":929,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychics","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/929"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8377,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8375\/revisions\/8377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psychicsdirectory.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}