We didn't have pumpkins in our day, we had turnips.
Ever tried carving a turnip 🫨
Tastes better at least.
I'm from the North East. I know they had turnips in Scotland too, but what about other areas – Liverpool, Birmingham, Kent, Wiltshire. Did everyone have to use turnips?
We did the same in the North West (although that’s a swede and not a turnip to me). The smell is so reminiscent of childhood.
Lived in a sleepy Yorkshire market town for a while, a lot of the older folk talked about carving turnips too.
I carved my turnip this weekend.
Yes and they were a nightmare to carve. I remember every Halloween at school we would spend an afternoon hollowing them out and never got past half way hollow. It was really tough. Never made it to the face. Â
This was Scotland.Â
I remember this as a lad in South Wales. Think pumpkin were not available or affordable enough
We had swede around here too, West Yorkshire.
neepy lanterns were always what we did on halloween in shetland
What do you mean last century? Mine is getting done tonight
Yep, turnip lantern with a bit of orange bailer twine for a handle, never saw pumpkins in the shops.
Ah the turnip lantern.
Always with realistic blood, sorry i mean actual blood from the attempts to carve a face and dig out a vegetable that’s the density of ebony.
Every year my Halloween outfit would have to include some excuse as to why my hands were bandaged up
Kids today will never know the struggle.
Yup, In Fife these were annual visitors. Candle wax and singed neep is a “particular” smell!! and every bairn won a prize. Bheers
That’s a turnip for the boos
That’s what we had in Edinburgh in the 70s. A tumshie, sometimes know as a neep. I never heard anyone call it a neep lantern though.
This was all done in the context of guising. You dressed up, went round neighbour’s houses and did some sort of performance on the doorstep for money. Usually a song or a rhyme. There was also dooking for apples which was done either by trying to grab the apple with your teeth from a baby’s bath in our case (cue brothers shoving your face into the water) or kneeling on a kitchen chair with a fork in your mouth and trying to spear one by dropping the fork.
It seemed like it was dying a bit even back then though and was replaced 20 or so years later by the American version. I do sometimes get mildly annoyed when people say we shouldn’t do Hallowe’en, it’s an American import- well only partly. They got it from us.
Yep, it was swede lanterns and apple bobbing all the way in Norfolk too.
Yes, and your Halloween costume would be a bin bag cut with head and leg holes. If you were lucky you’d get a plastic mask from the corner shop, and a staple to the temple from where the elastic was held to go over the back of your head. Good times.
Had them in Yorkshire in the 80’s. Pumpkins were forrin’ …..
Turnips were the traditional way of doing it in Ireland. It’s only after mass migration to the US, that they used Pumpkins which were cheaper and more plentiful. It then migrated back across the Atlantic as Halloween became more popular.
As other have said it was turnips carved up and that smell of burning in west Yorkshire.
They still do it this way here in Switzerland. Instead of plonking them in front of the house the kids march around carrying them.
Gotta say, it’s hard to argue turnips are better for the job! Pumpkins are hollow and orange, pretty good qualities for decorative vegetable lanterns!
We had swedes. I’ve no idea how you’d be able to carve a swede, they’re hard enough to peel and chop. Always told pumpkins were too expensive, but they’re only a pound or two now 35 years later
I used to have to carve these with a butter knife when I was a kid.
That will always be the smell of Halloween to me.
Ah, it wasn’t Halloween in the 80’s if you didn’t have a sprained wrist, cut fingers and wax all over your Reebok Classics
We had them in East Lancs.
Aye I remember running to the fruit and veg shop to try and get the biggest I could we used to call them Narkeys. Back in the day when you were allowed to walk round with a lighter and extra candles in your pocket as a kid.
This is still the way on the Isle of Mann, we went over for October half term a few years ago and wondered why all the kids colouring stuff in one of the museums was turnips 😂
I just tried to explain this to a little Russian girl. She was very confused.
Aren’t turnips like solid all the way through? How the hell do you hollow that out?
Still a thing in darkest Somerset – known as Punkie Night. Kids parading around with their lanterns. The size of some of the mangolds has to be seen to be believed. They are widely grown as a fodder crop.
For those of us who subscribe to the Turnip Earth Theory.
80s West Midlands. Yes but it was a swede as we’d eat swede mash but hated turnips. I remember it was rock hard and took my mum hours to carve out. Then we’d light it for half an hour before it’d start scorching the inside and smelling.
That’s a swede, a turnip is white and smaller. Years ago lanterns made out of turnip, with them having white skin, a candle inside is how any poor person would see when walking around after dark. They became known as jack o lanterns or will o the wisp as they looked like the glowing gas that used to form in wetlands. It was only after Irish immigration to the US that this became popular in the US and as is ever so, commercialised and sent back to us as a different event. No turnips in any great scale in USA so they used Pumpkin, and because we are Sheep to whatever they do in America we use pumpkins today. It’s getting harder to find proper turnips, but that’s what I always make our lanterns out of. Apple Podcast – search for English Heritage – Halloween – Ronald Hutton. It’s well worth a 30 minute listen.
Try finding a turnip/swede that big today all the ones in supermarkets are the size of a cricket ball.
Yes, north west in the 80s approves this post.
Wow, my childhood right there.
This needs to make a comeback
I was raised in the north east and then transplanted to Staffordshire as a kid. My family were seen as somewhat exotic as Dad still did turnips for us, as opposed to the rest of the neighbour’s swedes.
39 comments
We did the same in the North West (although that’s a swede and not a turnip to me).
The smell is so reminiscent of childhood.
Lived in a sleepy Yorkshire market town for a while, a lot of the older folk talked about carving turnips too.
I carved my turnip this weekend.
Yes and they were a nightmare to carve. I remember every Halloween at school we would spend an afternoon hollowing them out and never got past half way hollow. It was really tough. Never made it to the face. Â
This was Scotland.Â
I remember this as a lad in South Wales. Think pumpkin were not available or affordable enough
We had swede around here too, West Yorkshire.
neepy lanterns were always what we did on halloween in shetland
What do you mean last century? Mine is getting done tonight
Yep, turnip lantern with a bit of orange bailer twine for a handle, never saw pumpkins in the shops.
Ah the turnip lantern.
Always with realistic blood, sorry i mean actual blood from the attempts to carve a face and dig out a vegetable that’s the density of ebony.
Every year my Halloween outfit would have to include some excuse as to why my hands were bandaged up
Kids today will never know the struggle.
Yup,
In Fife these were annual visitors.
Candle wax and singed neep is a “particular” smell!! and every bairn won a prize.
Bheers
That’s a turnip for the boos
That’s what we had in Edinburgh in the 70s. A tumshie, sometimes know as a neep. I never heard anyone call it a neep lantern though.
This was all done in the context of guising. You dressed up, went round neighbour’s houses and did some sort of performance on the doorstep for money. Usually a song or a rhyme. There was also dooking for apples which was done either by trying to grab the apple with your teeth from a baby’s bath in our case (cue brothers shoving your face into the water) or kneeling on a kitchen chair with a fork in your mouth and trying to spear one by dropping the fork.
It seemed like it was dying a bit even back then though and was replaced 20 or so years later by the American version. I do sometimes get mildly annoyed when people say we shouldn’t do Hallowe’en, it’s an American import- well only partly. They got it from us.
Yep, it was swede lanterns and apple bobbing all the way in Norfolk too.
Yes, and your Halloween costume would be a bin bag cut with head and leg holes. If you were lucky you’d get a plastic mask from the corner shop, and a staple to the temple from where the elastic was held to go over the back of your head. Good times.
Had them in Yorkshire in the 80’s. Pumpkins were forrin’ …..
Turnips were the traditional way of doing it in Ireland. It’s only after mass migration to the US, that they used Pumpkins which were cheaper and more plentiful. It then migrated back across the Atlantic as Halloween became more popular.
As other have said it was turnips carved up and that smell of burning in west Yorkshire.
They still do it this way here in Switzerland. Instead of plonking them in front of the house the kids march around carrying them.
Gotta say, it’s hard to argue turnips are better for the job! Pumpkins are hollow and orange, pretty good qualities for decorative vegetable lanterns!
We had swedes. I’ve no idea how you’d be able to carve a swede, they’re hard enough to peel and chop. Always told pumpkins were too expensive, but they’re only a pound or two now 35 years later
I used to have to carve these with a butter knife when I was a kid.
That will always be the smell of Halloween to me.
Ah, it wasn’t Halloween in the 80’s if you didn’t have a sprained wrist, cut fingers and wax all over your Reebok Classics
We had them in East Lancs.
Aye I remember running to the fruit and veg shop to try and get the biggest I could we used to call them Narkeys. Back in the day when you were allowed to walk round with a lighter and extra candles in your pocket as a kid.
This is still the way on the Isle of Mann, we went over for October half term a few years ago and wondered why all the kids colouring stuff in one of the museums was turnips 😂
I just tried to explain this to a little Russian girl. She was very confused.
Aren’t turnips like solid all the way through? How the hell do you hollow that out?
Still a thing in darkest Somerset – known as Punkie Night. Kids parading around with their lanterns. The size of some of the mangolds has to be seen to be believed. They are widely grown as a fodder crop.
For those of us who subscribe to the Turnip Earth Theory.
80s West Midlands. Yes but it was a swede as we’d eat swede mash but hated turnips. I remember it was rock hard and took my mum hours to carve out. Then we’d light it for half an hour before it’d start scorching the inside and smelling.
That’s a swede, a turnip is white and smaller. Years ago lanterns made out of turnip, with them having white skin, a candle inside is how any poor person would see when walking around after dark. They became known as jack o lanterns or will o the wisp as they looked like the glowing gas that used to form in wetlands. It was only after Irish immigration to the US that this became popular in the US and as is ever so, commercialised and sent back to us as a different event. No turnips in any great scale in USA so they used Pumpkin, and because we are Sheep to whatever they do in America we use pumpkins today. It’s getting harder to find proper turnips, but that’s what I always make our lanterns out of. Apple Podcast – search for English Heritage – Halloween – Ronald Hutton. It’s well worth a 30 minute listen.
Try finding a turnip/swede that big today all the ones in supermarkets are the size of a cricket ball.
Yes, north west in the 80s approves this post.
Wow, my childhood right there.
This needs to make a comeback
I was raised in the north east and then transplanted to Staffordshire as a kid. My family were seen as somewhat exotic as Dad still did turnips for us, as opposed to the rest of the neighbour’s swedes.
People say you can smell a picture.
Well I can definitely smell this.
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