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?

We made lanterns out of swedes (called them turnips) at school in top juniors (yr 6). We were told to bring a kitchen knife to school - can you imagine that now?

I can't remember when I first saw a pumpkin, must have been in the late 80s or 90s.

We used turnips and, amazingly, didn't cut through, just hollowed out the centre so there was about less than half centimetre thickness and then peeled the purple skin in the shape of witches etc and when the candle was lit the light shone through the skinned parts.
It meant that you could carry you turnip lantern around with you when you were guising in the usually wet and windy Scottish evening and the light didn't get blown out.
Amazing work! And there were prizes for the best turnip lantern at the primary school Halloween party.

Yes - in Scotland. Jesus it was hard work and the smell when you lit the candle 🤢

Yes and the smell was memorable! Not sure how my dad had the strength to do it now!! I find it hard enough scraping out a pumpkin!!

Apparently from googling a rutabaga is a swede what some call a turnip depending on where your from. A white turnip is a turnip and theres another vegetable which i have never heard of before a jicama which is also a turnip.

Neepy lanterns in Aberdeenshire too! Dad got fed up one year and invented the orange pepper lantern instead.

Top tip: buy the neep a week in advance and it’ll have softened a bit by Halloween.

Your dad is a genius! I'm going to make a strong of them this year!

We did, and called them turnips too (Lancashire). I had a teaspoon with a serrated tip (for grapefruit) which I’d go at it with, once mum had started it off for me. I loved eating the raw turnip too.

Happy times.

As a child my mom used to carve out turnips instead of pumpkins. I had no idea turnip carving was a thing every year she went to buy a pumpkin for us. And pumpkins are easier. Nowadays times have changed definitely.

Turnips here too or Chonnocks if you want to use the local dialect.

Sugar beet here (East Anglia)!
Could never resist eating the scraped out bits - sadly not very digestible though

@CountFosco Not me! I have never in my life carved a swede! My wrists are aching just thinking about it, and I'm a chef- so I have dealt with my fair share of the buggers.

(As an aside, I'm a Lancashire lass and my partner is a Scouser- what I know as a swede is a turnip here in Liverpool, apparently)

@Shockers I'm also Lancashire and never knew anyone who called a swede a turnip! I'm weirdly fascinated by the differing words across the countries/counties. I won't get started on the bread roll/cake/barm/muffin debate!

It's a turnip, not a swede, in Devon and Cornwall too. We carved "turnips" in my childhood (Cornish/Devon and Scottish/NI family). Pumpkins still don't really say proper Halloween to me. But they are a revelation in terms of ease of carving. My glasses aren't so rose-tinted that I'm prepared to insist on turnips, I do still remember what a swine they are to carve.

Yes turnip here also. Everyone in the area used turnip.

Scotland. We carved what we called a turnip (although it was probably a swede).

Can't remember how we actually managed it without loosing any fingers. Dh chopped a swede for me yesterday and the knife shaped in two.

Yes, it was turnips in my house in the early 80s.

Ah... round here turnips are the size of a tennis ball, so a swede makes much more sense

We have relatives in the States, and the photos we've been sent over the years put my puny efforts and mutilated pupmpkins to shame.

Didn't do any carvings as a child, but we did a turnip for a change last year and oh my it was 1000 x creepier than any pumpkin we've ever done. Wasn't absurdly hard either, and had the bonus of not making such a mess or going mouldy.

We had sugar beets like rocks to carve, but free from the field behind our house.
Pumpkins were just in peanuts cartoons.

Turnip lanterns here in Northern Ireland. We were let loose with sharp knives to make the lantern, then sent out guising in the dark with a burning candle inside the lantern, while wearing black bin bags and nylon wigs. There wasn’t much in the way of health and safety in 1970s Northern Ireland.

Yes turnip here too. Pumpkin is easier to carve but I was at a pub the other day which had dozens of pumpkins in the garden, some with the insides spilling out and I have to say they were stinking. It made me yearn for turnips again...

Should have said I'm in Scotland too.

Yes! And we used to make small ones out of pomegranates too.