'Tis the season for gourds, indian corn, pumpkins, corn mazes and jack-o'-lanterns. And dETROITfUNK has a bunch of photos of gourds as do many other Michigan Photographers featured on Flickr.

So why DO we carve our pumpkins? Not knowing much about the jack-o'-lantern's history, I went searching at Wikipedia. They have an entry describing its origins, both in folklore and how that translated into what we know today as the North American Tradition. It reads (in part):

An Irish legend tells of Jack, a lazy but shrewd farmer who used a cross to trick the Devil, then refused to free him unless he agreed to never let Jack into Hell. The Devil agreed. When Jack died, he was too sinful to be allowed into Heaven, but the Devil wouldn't let him into Hell. So, Jack carved out one of his turnips, put a candle inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He was known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-Lantern. ...In England, Scotland, and Ireland, there is a long tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables

And how can we talk about jack-o'-lanterns without mentioning that loveable, unseen comic strip character, The Great Pumpkin from Charles M.Schulz's Peanuts. According to Wikipedia:

The Great Pumpkin is supposed to be a Santa Claus-like being that seems to exist only in the imagination of Linus van Pelt. Every year, Linus sits in a pumpkin patch on Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear. According to Linus, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch he finds to be most "sincere". ("Look around you! Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see!") The Great Pumpkin then flies through the air to deliver toys to all the good little children in the world.

It's a nice thought Linus! I'll wait in the pumpkin patch with you this year.

Take a look at October by dETROITfUNK
Also feast your eyes on these gourd and pumpkin tagged pics on Flickr
Click here to read the Wikipedia entry on Jack-o'-lantern
Click here to read the Wikipedia entry for The Great Pumpkin