Carving Halloween Pumpkins

Chen Zheng, GHP Class of Fall ‘21

During the leisure time while studying as an international student in the United States, one important part is to experience local life and American culture. In the past, I’ve seen a lot of movies or images showing people’s life in United States, one thing I most interested in is the way they celebrate festivals, there are many traditions during these holidays, such as “Pardoning the Thanksgiving Turkey” during the Thanksgiving Day, building a “Christmas Tree” during the Christmas… and what we’ve done today: Carving a pumpkin during the Halloween season.

 

Although some people may say that it seems a little bit early to talk about Halloween, but I can have a feeling of “Halloween is coming” since September. The Halloween decoration things selling in the supermarket, and my neighborhood’s decoration at their front gate all proving us a strong festival atmosphere. “It’s time to start my way to start the Halloween celebration.” I think, so on September 25th, a lovely Saturday in the fall season at North Carolina, we been to our teacher- Deb’s house to have an experience of carving pumpkins and do some cooking we skilled in to share with others.

 

Deb and her husband having us warmly at their house, although it’s our first time been here, we have a feeling of being at home. At the backyard, we have had barbecue, along with the meals we cooked by ourselves. It’s interesting to meet new friends from UNCG, we all feel really full after that because we feel like we are “continuously eating” and the meals we cooked are all really delicious.

Alongside with the “cooking competition,” another thing and why we came here importantly, is the carving pumpkins. It’s my first time carving the pumpkin and I found it’s harder than I thought before. Firstly, you need to remove the top of the pumpkin to remove the seeds inside the pumpkin for a better look, to remove the top is pretty hard, you need to add your force while using the knife so you can cut pumpkin’s skin thoroughly. In the meanwhile, you need to be cautious because you’re using a knife!

After cleaned the inside of our pumpkin, it’s time to have some design works! What you need to do is utility your creativity to think about how you’d like your pumpkin looks like and draw your idea on the pumpkin by marker pen for following detailed carve works.

After your design, then you have to grab you knife again- for a detailed work, some of us choose to carve a “basic style”, which is a typical Halloween pumpkin looks like. But some of my friends they are really creativity have had a beautiful carve! We shard our ideas of carving pumpkins and we have had a really good time that afternoon.

After this party, we felt really tired but enjoyed a lot of fun there. It’s a good day for us to experience the American culture and we can also meet new friends here, which I think is helpful for us international students who came to start a new life the United States. I really enjoyed this activity!

Activities, Student VoicesErin HollowayUNCG, 2021, WFU