Did anyone else carve a turnip instead of a pumpkin as a kid?

[FlyingMonkeys]

I can remember my mum always used to carve a turnip for Halloween. Was this a thing for other people too?

Yes, I'm not sure I'd actually seen a real pumpkin in my neck of the woods (very rural Munster) in the 1970s. Turnips took forever to carve and were so hard my dad took his life in his hands every year. When we carve pumpkins for DS now, every single year I'm surprised at how quick and easy it is in comparison.

Yes, child of the 60s and 70s - no pumpkins to be had. We carved turnips (swedes) which was really hard and took hours. It often involved nasty cuts too - in fact my DH almost lost a finger to it as a child (parents much less concerned about small kids and sharp knives in those days!).

Sad but true, Sandwich Fairy. We used to carve mini lanterns from truffles when I was a child. Fortnums used to get them in specially from Perigord.

Everyone in Scotland, Ireland and the north of England grew up with Neepie Lanterns. Pumpkins are part of the American re-introduction of Hallowe'en to this country.

@bevbrook I honestly never saw an actual turnip when I was growing up, it was always what you would call swedes. Nowadays I just call them big turnips and little turnips

We did turnips too ( scotland)
Really hard work.
I only know turnips as the thing English call a Swede but I don't know what the thing English call a turnip is other than a turnip either.

Yup. On Halloween we'd wake up to three carved lanterns in a row, all with different facial expressions. My dad used to put holes in them and string them for easy carrying. Yes, the smell stays with me now.

Sob!

We always carved a neep. An apple corer makes it a lot easier to carve out the inside and you're less likely to lose a finger.

I'm in the swede camp. Pumpkins are an American thing and I don't think Halloween had been Americanised way back yonder. I'm old Don't think i remember pumpkins in the shops back then.

I am Scottish and we always carved a turnip (of the big hard orange sort, The other kind i call a white turnip). It was bloody hard work and we had to rope my dad in to do it. i was glad we could get pumpkins when my DDs were small.

Oh the smell of a neepie lantern! Carried with a bit of string and a proper candle inside as there wasn’t tea lights.
We also called it a Tumshie lantern.
We called the little white ones snowball turnips.

Halloween swede! I always thought it was because we were poor, so you're all making me feel better!

My mum is Scottish and I used to carve a turnip/swede but would get fed up halfway through and abandon it for something less painful. It meant buttered neeps for tea though so that was a blessing.

Same here. The pumpkins weren’t as readily available were they? Sometimes we had a pumpkin if somebody made a trip to the farm shop for one.
I remember one child bringing a hollowed out, lit, large potato, with face, to one Halloween party. I thought that was very innovative.

My mum would always do the carving so I never had to go through the pain! But yes - always a turnip (swede) with string through so you could carry it. (we did have the small turnips as veg occasionally but just referred to them as wee turnips..)

My DM always used to carve a turnip, with string to carry it even though I begged her to do a pumpkin.

Yes, we carried our lantern with us while out trick-or-treating. Unlike today, when pumpkins seem usually to be left at home. (They are a bit big and, fire hazard carried close to costumes - but they're often that on doorsteps too!).

Pumpkins and squashes are from North America, hence not being a standard product here (until recently). They are a Hallowe'en tradition but not a British one.

Always a swede

We still do it in Scotland, some cousins still use neeps and they're creepy as hell

Yes. Loved the smell x

Swede. Took hours and was bloody hard.

We carved swedes - and so did all the kids who lived round us, and I'm from the south. I think it is generational rather than regional (I'm a 60's child), pumpkins weren't available here when I grew up (or not on any kind of scale - I certainly never saw one in a shop)

Swedes are a bit harder to carve than a pumpkin, but I think the lanterns lasted longer.

Aye, beeps. Took 54 years and would inevitably break just as you were doing the eyes / mouth and you'd have to use matches to pin it back together.

I never got to carve anything at all as a kid, so my skills are lacking...

Yep; turnip lanterns in my part of the world too..... but I really wanted a pumpkin.