Tag: halloween

  • Neep Lantern 2021

    carved swede/turnip with eyes cut out as crosses, two nostrils and a lopsided grin lit from inside by a small candle.

(the smell is fairly atrocious, but emotive of the day)
    My neep lantern for Halloween 2021

    What you can’t see is the smell of Halloween: the hum of charred turnip from the candle inside.

  • SuperLanterns Last All Summer Long

    I’m Scottish. For Hallowen, it’s traditional to make lanterns out of turnips. How this was done before power tools, I’ll never know.

    In 2015, I decided to make a traditional neep (that’s Scots for turnip) lantern. Yes, I used a holesaw, and turnip goo went everywhere.

    Neep Lantern — Age: 0 days

    It looked pretty good on the day:

    Neep Lantern — Age: 1 day (Halloween)

    Unlike pumpkins, turnips last. I left it out in the front garden.

    Neep Lantern — Age: 43 days

    It went very wizened:

    Neep Lantern — Age: 124 days

    It disappeared towards the end of May 2016. This was the last time I saw it:

    Neep Lantern — Age: 203 days

  • Happy Samhain!

    Hallowe'en 2004
    Not bad for my first attempt at pumpkin carving. It smells pretty bad when it’s got the full complement of candles charring the inside.

    Update, 9:30pm: Phew — it’s over. We handed out something like $60-worth of candy tonight. I had to make two emergency runs to the shops to get more. I have to say, this “Trick or Treat” thing is getting off lightly. When I was a kid in Glasgow, we’d go guising, all costumed up, and we each did a little party piece (song, poem, joke) to earn our loot. We had a retired teacher as a neighbour, and she was a difficult audience. You’d spend about five minutes inside each house, not just a few seconds at the door. Kids today, eh?