The Downey Pumpkin Patch.

Summary

I found the Downey Pumpkin Patch while out talking to businesses along Florence the other day in October. Yes carving pumpkins is an enduring Halloween seasonal favorite.

It’s October and while out talking to businesses along Florence the other day I came across an enduring seasonal favorite. The Halloween Pumpkin Patch.

I found the Downey Pumpkin Patch.

It’s thought that carving vegetable lanterns as part of the Halloween ritual started as a Celtic tradition in Ireland and Scotland. The vegetable of choice for these good luck and evil spirit chasing lanterns was a big turnip.

When the Irish people moved to America they replaced the turnip with pumpkins. Halloween went from a turnip carving festival to a time of pumpkin carving.

From doing a little research it seems the first recorded account of carving pumpkins in the US for halloween was in 1837.

As with many of our most cherished traditions it’s very likely halloween has neolithic roots. Although its recorded traditions were not documented until the iron age.

While some say Halloween is the Celtic New Year, others think it is another form of transition celebration. I’m sure the Celts knew of the solstice and equinox so it’s likely they had some kind of solar calendar. It is not uncommon for people to live by two different calendars. It is an interesting dilemma to ponder celebrations that fall roughly midway between the solstice and equinox.

The practice of dressing up in a disguise at Halloween was first recorded in North America in 1911. That is the same year the palm trees on Tweedy Lane around the corner from the Pumpkin Patch were planted.

Wishing all of you the very best,
Andrew