Autumn Traditions are in the Air

Although it's still very warm in parts of the United States, those of us in the Midwest are enjoying some cool, comfortable weather this week. In fact, the nights are feeling downright autumnal! Stores are filled with the bright colors of Halloween decorations, and those of us who need our yearly fix of pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin muffins, and the ever-popular pumpkin spice lattes, are blissfully eating and drinking our way into the season. Did you know that pumpkins have a long, interesting history? If your ancestors were in this country or in South or Central America, they likely ate, cooked, and/or carved pumpkins throughout their lives. Read on for more!

Pumpkin Origins

Our word for this ubiquitous symbol of fall derives from the Greek word "pepon," meaning large melon. As pumpkins became known to Europeans, the French began to pronounce it "pompon," and the English further changed it to "pumpion." By the time it got to the American colonists, the word had become "pumpkin."

Archeologists tell us that pumpkins and other winter squashes are native to the southwest United States, Mexico, Central America, Peru, Ecuador, and Columbia. They have been cultivated since about 3500 B.C., making them one of the oldest known food crops in this hemisphere. The pumpkins grown by the early American people were not the huge, often heavy, varieties we know today. They were small and hard and likely bitter. Although we know that pumpkin seeds, sometimes called pepitas, are tasty and nutritious, it's likely early people discarded them and concentrated on consuming only the flesh. They also used the hard outer shells as containers and wove dried strips of the shells into mats.

We know that Columbus (and likely other explorers as well) brought pumpkin seeds back to Europe, but the growing season in the northern countries wasn't long enough for pumpkins to flourish, so they weren't widely grown.

Our ancestors in the American colonies were introduced to pumpkin by the Native Americans and used pumpkins as a food source in both sweet and savory forms. We have recipes from the seventeenth century that describe roasting pumpkin, mashing it with butter and spices, and serving it as a side dish. By the early 1800s, pumpkin was morphing into a sweet treat, as cooks would scoop out the shells, mix the flesh with milk spiced with ginger, and roast it. A charming poem, circa 1630, illustrates how important pumpkins were to the colonists:

"For pottage and puddings and custard and pies,

Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies.

We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,

If it were not for pumpkins, we should be undoon."

 

The Irish Origins of Jack O'Lanterns

Ever wonder why we carve pumpkins into goofy or scary faces? Did our ancestors do that? Well, chances are they did because carving faces into hard vegetables has been a fall activity for hundreds of years. 

We can credit the Irish for the start of this tradition, as it goes back to an Irish myth about a man called Stingy Jack. Jack was a cheapskate and spent a lot of his time trying to outsmart the devil. Jack died after pulling several outlandish stunts, but God wouldn't let him into heaven, and the devil was not about to have him in hell either. He turned Jack out into the night with a lump of burning coal and sent him roaming the planet with no home for his soul. Jack carved out a turnip to hold his burning ember, and for all we know, he's still out there! As Jack's story was told over and over, he became known as Jack of the Lantern, or Jack O'Lantern.

Because there were no pumpkins in Europe at this time, the original Jack O'Lanterns in Ireland and Scotland were carved out of turnips or potatoes and placed in doors or windows to keep Stingy Jack and other wandering spirits away. In England, they also used large beets. When these Celtic immigrants came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were readily available, and their larger size made them a lot easier to carve than beets, potatoes, and turnips. 

Most of us will have pumpkins in our houses in some form over the next few weeks, and as we eat our pies, help the children to carve out faces, or roast seeds for ourselves or our backyard birds, we can thank our ancestors for passing this fun tradition on to us.

Want to read more?

"History of Pumpkins and Recipe Round-Up," Tori Avey, 25 November 2014, https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-pumpkins-recipes/

"Pumpkin: A Brief History," Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, 4 October 2013, https://ipm.missouri.edu/meg/2013/10/Pumpkin-A-Brief-History/

"Pumpkin History," from the History Channel, University of Illinois Extension, 2023, https://web.extension.illinois.edu/pumpkins/history.cfm