Oh my gourd! It is fall, which means it’s pumpkin season! There are many fall activities and traditions that involve pumpkins such as going to get a pumpkin spice latte, crafts, making a pie or eating the seeds, carving, painting and going to the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin.
Once you get that perfect pumpkin, what will you do with it? Will you carve or paint it? Both will create masterpieces, but carving will definitely be messier. Are you willing to get your hands dirty? If not, there is an alternative of pumpkin painting.
I asked the students of Elizabethtown College which is best, pumpkin painting or carving. Let’s see what they said.
Sophomore Ethane Omwanza chooses pumpkin carving because it is more of a “hands on activity.”
“You can paint anything, but you cannot carve everything,” Omwanza said. “To me, painting in and of itself is not a unique activity enough of it to be associated with pumpkins.”
Hopping on the carving train, sophomore Shaun Ardoin shines a light on the debate., “You can add a light to it, and it is more fun,” Ardoin said. “And if you go trick or treating, you can’t see the designs if it is painted because there is no light.”
Sophomore Corryn Burnett brought a cathartic perspective.“[I pick] pumpkin carving because, like lowkey, get your anger out on the pumpkin,” she said. “Also, roasted pumpkin seeds are good.”
“Carving is really messy, and it requires a lot of muscles that I do not have,” sophomore Emily Waire said.
In my opinion, I agree with Waire. To me, pumpkin carving is very labor intensive. The pumpkin carving process hurts my hand muscles so much. Maybe that is a skill issue on my end. But pulling out the guts of the pumpkin is sickening. The feel of it is so slimy, and the texture is indescribably disgusting. Plus, the smell makes my stomach turn. Overall, I would much rather pumpkin paint than pumpkin carve this, and every, fall season.
One year I painted a Nemo from “Finding Nemo” pumpkin, and it was so much fun. Although it was not the traditional pumpkin carving activity, it still was a fun activity, and the pumpkin still looked very “gourd-geous” without being carved.
In round one of this debate, pumpkin carving wins by a landslide. Although I do not have the “guts” to carve pumpkins, pumpkin carving is a popular pick amongst Etown students. But do not overlook pumpkin painting this fall season because it can also be a cathartic and relaxing experience.
