How the pumpkin became so well connected to Halloween

By creammagazine, October 19, 2026

The pumpkin became linked to Halloween when Irish and Scottish immigrants – fresh arrived to North America – replaced their traditional carved turnips with the more abundant, larger pumpkin, transforming the jack-o’-lantern into a defining symbol of the holiday.

The legend of ‘Stingy Jack’ and the jack-o’-lantern

To ward off harmful spirits, Irish and Scottish communities would once upon a time carve grotesque faces into turnips, beets or potatoes and placed embers inside to create protective lanterns. These early lanterns were not decorative – they were meant to frighten away wandering spirits.

The practice became intertwined with the Irish folktale of Stingy Jack, a trickster who outwitted the Devil and was condemned to wander the earth with only a carved turnip lantern to light his way. This story gave rise to the term ‘jack-o’-lantern’.

How the pumpkin became ingrained in North American culture

When those large numbers of immigrants arrived in late 19th-century North America, they brought their jack-o’-lantern traditions with them (we are not kidding), but since their usual root vegetables were scarce on American soil, pumpkin seeds were planted instead.

The pumpkin proved to be not only a much larger, more generous vegetable, it was softer and easier to carve, therefore allowing for the creation of a lot more evil-spirit-warding lanterns.

The pumpkin becomes a Halloween icon
By the late 1800s, American magazines, postcards, and holiday guides were already depicting pumpkin lanterns as central to Halloween celebrations. As Halloween shifted from a spiritual observance to a community oriented, child friendly holiday, pumpkins became a festive, decorative symbol rather than a protective talisman.

Felt-made pumpkins for sale on Etsy.

Today, mass market decorations featuring pumpkin imagery all over them, and there are even pumpkin carving kits sold in shops, while pop culture has also proliferated the connection between the pumpkin and Halloween (just think of the most popular horror film set during the holiday).

The rise of pumpkin flavoured foods, especially in the U.S., and pumpkin-scented candles in just about every knick-knack store you walk into in Australia, has only seen the vegetable’s status as metaphor for Halloween solidify.

The bright orange colour of pumpkins contrasts rather nicely with the dark themes of the holiday, and carving them – or at least buying fake ‘carved’ pumpkins from the shop – has become a widely shared continual ritual.

Lisa Andrews & Antonino Tati