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Just for Kids
Can you imagine Thanksgiving dinner without Pumpkin Pie or Hallowe’en without a Jack-O-Lantern? We couldn’t have either if there were no pumpkins! There are a lot of stories about the pumpkin. Remember Cinderella and her pumpkin coach? And then there was Peter, Peter who kept his wife in a pumpkin shell (what a home!). Who can forget Charlie Brown and Linus with their story about the “Great Pumpkin” patch? The pumpkin is a very useful vegetable. It has some very important vitamins and minerals which our bodies need to stay healthy. Pumpkins are easy to grow and it is fun to see how big a pumpkin will become. In early summer, if the seeds are planted in a mound of ground where the sun shines on it all day, they will quickly grow large vines. The pumpkin vines are very thirsty so need to be watered often and once in a while they like to have some extra food - called fertilizer. If you want to have a personal pumpkin, while the pumpkin is small and green, carve your initials carefully into the shell. As the pumpkin grows, the initials will grow larger too. In the fall, the pumpkins change colour from green to orange. After the vines have withered, or have been damaged by a light frost, it is time to harvest the pumpkins. Set the pumpkins in a warm place for a week or two to allow the shell to harden. The flowers on the vine, when dipped into a batter and fried, are very tasty. The seeds inside the pumpkin can be roasted and eaten as a delicious snack. Have you ever wondered if a pumpkin can float? Place one in a tub of water and see what happens. The leaf stalk of the pumpkin vine can be made into a musical instrument which can be played like you play a flute, a clarinet or a recorder. The pumpkin is used most often at Hallowe’en. An old story tells how the “Jack-o-Lantern” got its name. There was a stingy, mean old man named Jack who, when he died was too mean to get into heaven. When Jack went to hell, the Devil wouldn’t let him in. He gave Jack a piece of burning coal and sent him away. Jack put the piece of burning coal into a hollowed out turnip to use as a lantern to light his way. The people who lived in England and France would carry a lantern when they walked outdoors on the eve of October 31. Their lanterns were carved out of big turnips with a candle inside. Because stingy, mean old Jack was believed to be wandering around looking for a place to stay, they thought that by carrying this lantern it would keep old Jack away from them. The children would carve faces in these turnips. When the early pioneers came to America from Europe, they discovered the big round pumpkin. It was much larger and more colourful than turnips. The pumpkin made great lanterns and so the pumpkin replaced the turnip. And today we still carve faces into a pumpkin and call it a Jack-O-Lantern. *Privacy statement - All e-mail addresses and messages received will be held in strict confidence and will not be submitted to any third party. |
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