I was so excited to see this pumpkin carving event! I love pumpkin carving. I did it every year with my sister at home, and I’ve really missed it these past few Halloweens, along with all of the decorating. There are a lot of little traditions that I miss out on now, so it was nice to reclaim this one in a small way.

It was perfectly timed too – I had a prelim that got out at nine, so I came straight from my test. Scooping out pumpkin guts was the perfect stress reliever, and, after finally deciding what to actually carve, I really started to feel the holiday spirit. Overall, carving my pumpkin was very fun, and I had a great time!

One thing that I have greatly missed since coming to college is carving pumpkins. Every year my family would put newspaper down under the carport and scoop out the pumpkin guts then carve a silly looking face onto the pumpkin we had picked. I was so happy to get to have this experience again, though this time my hands were not frozen ice cubes from the cold weather outdoors. I got to carve pumpkins with some of my closest friends and I really saw the community that I have around myself here at Cornell. Though the pumpkins rotted a few days later and made my room smell atrocious, I had a great time.

Initially, I was hesitant about attending this event, as I hate getting my hands messy, and just thinking about carving an actual pumpkin made me feel slightly nauseous. However, when my friends and I were at the actual event, I did most of the carving simply because I was not only enjoying it, but it was also an awesome activity that proved to be an outlet for all the stress that had accumulated that week. I was stressed about the myriad of upcoming exams and quizzes; however, in that moment I truly enjoyed myself with some of my closest friends. We ended up naming our pumpkin and took an embarrassing amount of pictures with it.

Two friends frustrated with societal situations,

decide to leave homework’s manipulations, 

celebrate the festivity of human creations, 

and with wrong tools, easy distortions,

just like first-generation students’ frustrations, 

wrong tools, learning with the complications, 

who will provide the justifications? 

I think only the girl next to me. 

Pumpkin carving (or in this case, pumpkin drawing) was a good break from studying and exams. I drew a video game character (Squid from Splatoon if you’re curious) I realize that it’s okay to relax once in a while. And it actually feels refreshing!

The Pumpkin Carving event at the Rose House Dining Hall was entertaining because I have never carved a pumpkin before. We were all given a large plastic trash bag, markers, and utensils to decorate our pumpkins. All the pumpkins were in a cart. I chose a horizontally large pumpkin to work on with my friends. We needed to carve out the stem, so it took two sharp utensils and all the people in our group to carve it out. The most time consuming task was to take out all the seeds, which my friend did a great job at. I was surprised that a pumpkin had many seeds and that pumpkin carving was not easy at all. Two of my other friends and I carved out the eyes and mouth as well as decorated the pumpkin with markers. Although it was the first time carving a pumpkin for my friends and I, we were satisfied with our creation because it was colorful and unique.  

Though I was worried about a test I would have the next day, pumpkin carving just sounded so fun that I still attended anyways. Since the last time I carved a pumpkin was probably over ten years ago, I only vaguely remembered the procedure on cleaning out the pumpkin and how to carve it. It was really fun scraping out all the fiber-y stuff inside and the seeds and I ended up bringing the seeds home to roast them. I wanted to try a more difficult design and ended up really liking the idea of carving the image of Charmander, the flame-type Pokemon. I found a picture of someone else’s Charmander pumpkin online and tried to mimic their shading by cutting out varied thicknesses out of the pumpkin. It was somewhat difficult because I didn’t have a scraping tool and was just using the same knife that we used to cut into the pumpkin which didn’t have much maneuverability, so despite the fact that my pumpkin definitely didn’t look as clean-cut and well-shaded as the one I based mine off of, I was really proud of how it turned out!

This past weekend, I carved a pumpkin for the first time. Cutting into the pumpkin itself was much easier than I expected. Making smooth lines, however, was much harder than I had anticipated. The pumpkin I made had a cat on one side and a Charmander on the other side. I focused on the cat and let my partner do the Charmander, because the cat was easier and I had less experience with pumpkin carving.

I was sad when I cut some parts too much and ended up making the cat’s tail fall off, but the feeling of carving into the pumpkin was still extremely satisfying. Also, my partner made an amazing Charmander and I helped a little with it, so I can take pride in having helped carve a work of art.

We put out pumpkin under a tree in front of Founder’s Hall. The pumpkin itself has since been removed (presumably because it was in danger of growing moldy) and all that is left is the carved out Charmander.

After taking my stats prelim I quickly walked over to Rose so I could relax by carving a pumpkin! This was a great event to do before halloween and amidst prelim season. My friends and I had so much fun carving and decorating our pumpkin, which is something I had only done twice beforehand. I have to say this was one of the most memorable and fun events that I attended. I loved every minute of it and I hope to do it again next year!

My first experience with “gourdlandia” was very interesting, to say the least. Although the concept sounds rather simple, it was much more complex than one might think. To start, the gourds were dried and drilled rather than carved, as one might think. There was also quite a bit of manual skill involved with angling the drill properly and holding it with your fingers in a proper manner. Additionally, there were also a variety of drill sizes to choose from, each with a slightly different feel to the instrument. However, what I found to be most interesting and difficult was the concept of positive and negative space and how this influenced how light was diffused in three-dimensional space. For example, when holes were created on the sides of the gourd, it created a halo spread around the wall behind the gourd. Not only did you have to think about how the gourd looked to the naked eye, but predict how light would look as it passed through it, as a nightlight, this would be the form in which you would see it most.

As this project was not graded and was merely for enjoyment purposes, I had a fun time experimenting with these artistic concepts in a low-stakes environment. I can also say now I know a great deal more about ever-so-useful gourd drilling than I did before this project!

This past week I joined my suitemates in carving pumpkins. The event took me back to many childhood halloweens spent at the dining room table scooping out pumpkin “guts” and designing a creature to be carved out and lit up for the neighborhood to see. The major difference this time is that I could handle the knife unsupervised!

The four of us split into groups of two and went away at designing and carving. My pumpkin was carved into a haunted house and spooky tree. The others suitemates elected for a cute, crooked-toothed jack-o-lantern which they later named Freddy.

The experience was simple, fun, and very relaxing. Afterward we all reflected on how enjoyable our time was and how important it was to take a step away from studying to enjoy some wholesome, stress-free times together.

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, so I was excited to sign up for a Rose Event that fit so well with the season. I always carved pumpkins when I was growing up, so it was nice to continue the tradition this year with my friends from Rose House. I had so much carving pumpkins with them and we got to laugh together while reliving stress during prelim season. It was a great way to relax and spend some time together without having to worry about tests and homework. The jack-o-lanterns were great Halloween decoration for our suite. This was an awesome Rose House Event, and I am happy I signed up!

This event was my first time carving a pumpkin. During Halloween, I only dressed up or went to trick or treat events. This Halloween was even more meaningful because I was able to try something new with my friends. Three of us worked on the pumpkin and our carved pumpkin showed unique characteristics of each of us. I never thought about carving two different faces on the pumpkin, but with several people working on a single pumpkin, our finished product had several expressions. This time, mainly drew on the pumpkin with the sparkly Sharpie markers that were provided rather than actually using carving tools. This event provided a great opportunity for me to be creative and bond with my friends.

As usual I was attracted to the pumpkin carving activity, for it is in the ‘artsy’ category.

But when the little girls in our group happily stuck the carving saw into the pumpkin, I hesitated.

I felt pain.

It was really sad at this scene. I myself can’t stab the knives into a pumpkin. I felt that it was flesh, fresh, dripping, and even pulsing with all those circulation of cell fluids.

But I did it anyway. I tried to make some nice carving, and made a smiling face on the pumpkin. My friends and I stood before the camera, holding the pumpkin. Cheers.

A pumpkin, unlike clay sculptures, cannot be stored long, and will attract flies. As the only one person living in Rose Main (which is the nearest to the dining hall) in our group, I offered to dump it.

The pumpkin was heavy. When I carried it upstairs it sit in my arms like a baby. It kept the big, carved smile, but it eerily reminded me of the Black Dahlia.

I thrusted it to the trash tunnel, saying ‘sorry buddy’. Dong.

I returned to my room, feeling sarcastic about myself that although I could not even bear carving a pumpkin, I had just failed in my trial of going vegan several days ago.

Sloppy, I called myself, sloppy.

But the mood is far too blue for Halloween. I shook my head, not wanting to continue criticising myself as I had always been doing, and sat down for my homework.

I’ve never pumpkin carved before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. We decided to carve a C in our pumpkin for Cornell. Surprisingly, carving pumpkins is a lot easier than I thought it’d be. We first took out the insides of the pumpkin and then carved the C out.

Growing up, I never did many fall related festivities like pumpkin carving, but I’m really glad I tried it. Activities like pumpkin carving gives people the opportunity to take time of their days to bond over working on a common project.

Fall has always been my favorite season. I’ve always been excited for the changing colors of the leaves, sweater weather, football, hot chocolate, and Halloween! Pumpkins are such a crucial part of fall; many foods are made from them and pumpkin carving is a fun activity for people of all ages. While I’ve only carved one pumpkin in my life, I was glad I was able to carve the second at Rose house. Because there weren’t enough pumpkins for all of us, we paired up and carved pumpkins together. This was fun because I was able to further bond with my suitemates! We took turns carving and taking the guts out of the pumpkins. Finding a design for the rather large pumpkin was difficult, but after browsing the internet, we decided on a haunted house and tree. I enjoyed the extra perk of Halloween music and candy that was handed out about halfway through carving. I would have enjoyed if we could use the guts of the pumpkin for other uses, like in food or other things. However, all in all I thought the event really put everyone in the Halloween spirit and added a spookier feeling to the Rose community. I’m always happy when I walk around and see awesome pumpkin designs around campus.

Amidst midterm season, I decided to attend a rose scholar event that would provide a bit of stress relief. Pumpkin carving did not disappoint. From the spooky music to pumpkin guts, it was a fun and enjoyable event from start to finish.

However, what I enjoyed most was time doing something together with my roommate and suitemates. We all have busy schedules, but it was so comforting to take time out of it to create together. There is something to be said about accomplishing a physical task with your hands in community with others. It provides a sense of satisfaction that rivals that of intellectual or academic accomplishment. I realize this sounds silly for something as simple as carving a pumpkin, but it truly was a very enjoyable and satisfying experience. I hope to be able to attend more creative events like it with my friends in the future.

I was wondering how pumpkins evolved to look so distinct from other plants, so I looked it up. Pumpkins are formally in the species Cucurbita Pepo (literally “gourd pumpkin”), which is the same species as winter squash and zucchini. The species can look so different because it is one of the oldest, if not the oldest domesticated species thanks to prehistoric Native Americans. When you think of a pumpkin, you’re picturing the Connecticut Field variety, which fittingly was grown in fields in Connecticut by Native Americans. Nowadays, 95% of the US pumpkin crop intended for processing is grown in Illinois, so if you’re eating pumpkin pie, the pumpkins probably came from Illinois. If you’re curious about jack-o-lanterns, they started in Ireland to commemorate “Stingy Jack,” a mythical figure so stingy that he duped Satan twice but ended up having to roam around between Heaven and Hell with a candle because Satan wouldn’t let him into Hell (Irish people must have been really bored). The Irish didn’t use pumpkins though since they were a New World crop; rutabaga was used instead. If you’re wondering where pumpkin spice lattes come from, the answer is Starbucks, of course. They weren’t invented until 2003 and contained absolutely no pumpkin until 2015. Starbucks has sold at least 200 million pumpkin spice lattes since then. As you can see, pumpkins are a pretty versatile plant and surprisingly important to human history.

Yesterday, I had a very pleasant time carving a pumpkin with my friend. However, this was both our first time carving a pumpkin, so we messed up a little and our pumpkin ended up not looking as good as we wanted. Nonetheless, it was a really cool experience and we had a lot of fun doing it.

It came to my attention however that when people carve pumpkins every year, a lot of pumpkins go to waste when all their insides are carved out and the pumpkins are left outside until they rot. I guess some people can eat the meat of the pumpkin or the seeds, but for those who don’t, it made me wonder if this activity is considered wasteful.

On Thursday night, three friends and I went to Rose dining hall to carve a pumpkin! It is my first doing it. It is actually really hard to carve it and make a beautiful patterns. We worked together and finally carve a Halloween Pumpkin! It is a big accomplishment for me. I really like this event!