What you can’t see is the smell of Halloween: the hum of charred turnip from the candle inside.
Neep Lantern 2021
Tag: halloween
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.
It looked pretty good on the day:
Unlike pumpkins, turnips last. I left it out in the front garden.
It went very wizened:
It disappeared towards the end of May 2016. This was the last time I saw it:
Aye. Halloween. SCOTTISH
I would *totally* go as the owl pellet
— from the ever-wonderful SUBNORMALITY!
Happy Samhain!
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?