Masked pumpkins

With masks being THE accessory of the season and pumpkins being the most popular seasonal fruit, I decided to combine the two and create a trio of masked pumpkins.

Instead of the more traditional scary faces, I chose to decorate my pumpkins with masks like those worn at a traditional Venetian masked ball.

I now fully appreciate a four year old’s passion for glitter. Armed with paint and glitter, ribbon, fake gems and jewels, and gold netting, I had a blast. Even though I love orange pumpkins, my color scheme lent itself better to the relatively new “ghost” or white pumpkins. And, being a painter instead of sculptor and much more comfortable with a brush than a knife, I painted my pumpkins instead of carving them.

Carving or decorating pumpkins at Halloween dates back centuries to Ireland and the myth of “Stingy Jack” (absolutely NO relation to my husband, Jack, in spite of his reputation for frugality). Stingy Jack was such a scoundrel that when he died, God wouldn’t let him into heaven but instead sent him into the dark night with only a small piece of burning coal to light his way. Jack put this into a hollowed out turnip and according to legend, one could see Jack wandering through the darkness carrying his “lantern.” Soon he became known as Jack of the lantern, then Jack O’lantern.

On the eve of All Saint’s Day (November 1) the Irish put a light into a carved turnip or potato and walked through the villages, remembering Stingy Jack. When Irish immigrants came to America, they brought this tradition with them but found that the native American pumpkins were much more suitable for this purpose than the smaller turnips.

I’ll admit that my fancy masked pumpkins bear only the very slightest resemblance to a hollowed out turnip with a lump of coal, but I had a lot of fun doing it. If you, too, want to spend a week painting and glittering and gluing, go for it. It’s cheaper than therapy.