The first jack-o'lanterns were carved out of turnips and potatoes by the Scots and Irish.

The jack-o'lantern tradition started when people began reporting sightings of eerie lights atround marshes and bogs that bobbed like a lantern in someone's hand. The mysterious lantern carrier was called "Jack," a common name.

Males in New England turned pumpkin shells upside down on their on their heads before haircuts and had their hair trimmed around the base of the shell. Thus, the term "pumpkinhead" began.

American Indians taught early settlers to plant pumpkin seeds in the spaces between corn hills so the spreading vines would keep the weeds down.

There are two main kinds of pumpkins--yellow cheese and orange stock. The cheese pumpkins are canned and sold as pie filling, while the orange stock varieties are used for carving or as livestock food.

Most of the pumpkins in the United States come from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and California. Morton, Illinois is home of the Nestle/Libbys pumpkin packing plant and boasts of being the "pumpkin capital of the world."