Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

When I was a kid we didn't have pumpkins at Halloween, we used turnips, was I a deprived child?!

76 replies

northerner · 29/10/2006 08:02

Noone else I have met used turnips, only me and my group of friends. There must be someone on here who used turnips also? My muim says it's because they were easier to carry and cheaper.

We would go off Halloweening carring our turnip and we would actually sing a Halloween song, not just say 'Trick or treat'.....

The sky is Blue
The grass is green
Have you got a penny for Halloween, for Halloween
If you haven't got a penny
A Hapenny will do
If you haven't got a Hapenny
Theny God bless you

OP posts:
SamhainWitch · 29/10/2006 20:39

I think the north/south divide is probably more evident in who calls them turnips and who says swede .

To me a swede is white and red and waaaaaay too small to make a lantern. Turnips are bigger and orangey.

LadyOfTheFlowers · 29/10/2006 20:44

i thought a turnip was the white carrot thing or is that a parsnip?
a sweede to me is about the size of a grapefruit and is purple at one 'end' and white the other. and its a ball shape?
is that right?!!
[confused emoticon]

LadyOfTheFlowers · 29/10/2006 20:44

am googling!!

LadyOfTheFlowers · 29/10/2006 20:46

turnip and swede is the same thing....!!

TheDaVinciCod · 29/10/2006 20:46

mmy MUM was talkign abotu turnip lanterns

w ehad htem in scotland

Mercy · 29/10/2006 20:48

turnips and swede are 2 different vegetables!

Both horrible.

SamhainWitch · 29/10/2006 20:49

Yes, but swede are sold when smaller and the flesh is whiter.

Turnips are sold when bigger and the flesh is darker.

Skribble · 29/10/2006 20:52

We used what Scots call a turnip and English call suedes.

Turnip lantern Scottish swede Scottish Turnips

southeastastra · 29/10/2006 20:52

we had a swede when i made lanterns with my mate in 1979 i ate the inside raw yum. it tasted of cabbage

SamhainWitch · 29/10/2006 20:53

Snort at suede (sorry )

TheDaVinciCod · 29/10/2006 20:53

i LOVE mashed swede

Mercy · 29/10/2006 20:53

here's a turnip o'lantern!

Skribble · 29/10/2006 20:54

Sorry swedes

Blu · 29/10/2006 20:58

My mum always hollowed out a swede. A big swede - bigger than a turnip, I thought.
They didn't sell pumpkins in the shops then - people used to grow big squashes in allotments, but I don't remember anyone using them for halloween.

And we used to do apple bobbing and a game with a cherry on the top of a big 'cake' of flour, and you had to cut 'slices' from the cake without makimg the cherry fall in. And the person who did had to pick up the cherry from the flour with thier teeth.

expatinscotland · 29/10/2006 20:59

Yep, DH has just confirmed, it was neeps.

I had to remind him what a deprived, Scottish soul he is.

southeastastra · 29/10/2006 21:01

i only saw pumpkins on the snoopy show

Twohootsandapumpkin · 29/10/2006 21:03

I too had turnips (bless my Gran who used to carve them out year after year) - I'm from Newcastle (and proud to be a Geordie ). I can't remember seeing a pumpkin when I was little? I think they are much more common now, now that food gets shipped all over the world in a jiffy!!

I too remember walking around with a candle in the bloody thing and the least breath of wind would blow it out. Then someone had the ingenious idea of using a small torch inside it -aha!!!

I love Halloween . Am dressing DD up as a little black cat this year (18 mo) - she was a pumpkin last year and looked sooo cute!

Bozza · 29/10/2006 21:21

As far as Asda is concerned turnips are small, roundish and purple and white coloured giving a white coloured flesh in side. Swedes are larger, more oval and have a more orange coloured flesh.

mawbroon · 29/10/2006 22:15

We had turnips (in Angus). The Sunday school gave us all a turnip the Sunday before Hallowe'en to bring to the party on the day. I remember them being enormous compared to the little piffling turnips that you get in the shops now. I even won a prize for having the best turnip lantern at the party. I recall that I stuck marbles in the eye holes for that extra special effect.
Who were all these Mums that did it for you guys?? We all did it (five of us) sitting on the floor in the kitchen on newspaper and then we had turnip as the veg with dinner for the next umpteen nights!! And arranging the string so that you could carry it without the lid falling off was quite a difficult task. Oh, and you had to remember to make a chimney in it too. Real candles in them as well, nothing safe like torches or anything and I recall that we were allowed to take matches out too in case the candle blew out in the howling gale that there usually was.

Pollux · 29/10/2006 23:47

I had a turnip lantern too! I live in Fife and I don't even count myself that old (I'm 23)lol

I used to love Halloween. Going guising, dooking for apples and trying to grab a bite of a treacle scone hanging from a string without using your hands the good old days

Bramshott · 30/10/2006 10:26

Was talking about this with my mum the other day, and we came to the conclusion that pumpkins were harded to get hold of in the 70s.

Bramshott · 30/10/2006 10:27

Should also have said - I grew up in Gloucestershire, where I definitely wasn't the only one with a turnip lantern!

whooOOOoooOOOpsfallenoveragain · 30/10/2006 10:32

I was really deprived as a child we didn't have anything!

fartmeistergeneral · 30/10/2006 10:37

such was my deprived turnipy childhood - hadn't even seen a pumpkin in real life til in my teens!

Mellowma · 30/10/2006 11:09

Message withdrawn