FAIRYLAND GARDENERS’ AND WORT-RAISERS SOCIETY announces the 2024 Fairyland Veg-o-Lantern Exhibition (both days) and Competition (Saturday only)
In the style of traditional Jack O’Lanterns we are making Veg o Lanterns
for Exhibition at the Real Halloween
Come and see what is possible with local fruit and veg
Creations will be exhibited and judged in the Performance Tent after the Fancy Dress Show – bring them along by 1.30pm Saturday
Fairy Gold Prizes will be given to the finest entries
Winners will be announced at 2.15pm Saturday in the Performance Tent
All entries will be displayed
Pumpkins are so passe´
(We are sorry but we do not have the capacity to hold the competition both days but Veg o Lanterns arriving Sunday can be added to the Exhibition)
How to Make A Veg-o-lantern
We encourage everyone to make a traditional Jack-O-Lantern to celebrate a Real Halloween at home. These tips may be helpful.
How to Make A Veg O Lantern to Wort Raiser standards:
Make a space for a tea light in your Veg o Lantern but it does not need to be lit.
Rules (FAIRYLAND GARDENERS’ AND WORT-RAISERS SOCIETY):
- Only British grown fruit and veg to be used
- Use only cocktail sticks as accessories
- Extra points for organic
- All lanterns must have a hole or resting place for a tealight
- No plastic
Sample of Card (check for authenticity) used at a previous Society competition.
The Veg-o-Lantern Exhibition is unique event open only to visitors to The Real Halloween
Here are some of the previous crop of root-veg and other assorted plant creations which caught the eye of the Judges:
Monster Swede – took First Prize
Fairy House – Second Prize
some other entries:
The Veg-o-Lantern competition helps re-kindle the ancient British folk tradition of Jack-O-Lanterns (Will o’ The Whisps and all that – see more below). Long before pumpkins were imported to Britain from America, people used to carve root vegetables like turnips to make Jack-o-Lanterns to place in their windows at night in order to keep away mischievous spirits. In Cornwall they were associated with the Pixies. In East Anglia they were common in areas like the Fens and the Broads, where Will O’The Wisps were mysterious lights seen gliding above marshes.
Norfolk traveller sighting a Will o the Wisp on his way back from the pub
Simply create your own Veg-O-Lantern and bring it along to The Real Halloween before the deadline (see above).
The only real rules are that you should use a British root or garden vegetable (eg swede, turnip, marrow, magle-worzel, parsnip, large potato with eyes, etc) and attach accessories (limbs, noses, ears, hair etc) to taste. Pumpkins are reluctantly permitted but being a recent American import, they are not encouraged, and commercially grown shop-bought pumpkins are discouraged as they are often full of chemicals. [For more on the Pumpkins topic see *at the end]
Pumpkins are not encouraged
Scenes from earlier Judgings:
History of the Competition
Little is known about the origins of the Veg o Lantern Show as much remains classified under the Fairyland 3,000 Year Rule but Judging is hereditary and passed down either the male or female line depending on who has the greenest fingers. The photograph above shows Ethel ‘Brassicas’ Spofforth, on her way to the Avebury Judging in 1932. Ethel was Head Judge from 1929 until 1943 when a virulent outbreak of Cabbage White Butterflies made it impractical for her to continue.
Un-authorised accounts have it that the origins of ‘Jack o Lanterns’ lie with the Cornish Pixies, themselves traditionally associated with tin mining. ‘Joan the Wad’ is celebrated in Cornwall, for example at the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft, and was Queen of the Pixies. ‘Wad’ means torch and she was believed to light the way. Her husband Jack o Lantern was King of the Pixies. Accounts are divided as to whether they help strangers find their way or lead them astray. Perhaps it depends on how they are feeling or how nice people are to them. In Devon Pixies are regarded as friendly and harmless.
Cornish tin mining is also strongly associated with magical folk, possibly linking to Pixies. ‘Knockers‘ were magical beings known to who sound warning knocks to miners before a section of roof gave way. Accordingly Cornish tin miners, who invented the Cornish Pasty as a way of taking food underground without needing excessive packaging, used to leave the last bit behind to feed the Knockers, or possibly Pixies.
Knockers Pasties for Cornish Tin Miners
Cornish miners carried lamps to find their way underground and until the invention of the Safety Lamp by Sir Humphry Davy in 1815, these were candle stubs attached to felt hats, which posed a constant risk of explosions from mine gas.
Cornish miner with candle on his hat (not recommended)
In Eastern England and other areas ‘Will of the Wisp‘ is also known as ‘Fools Fire’, and some say the term “will-o’-the-wisp” simply comes from a “wisp”, or bundle of sticks or paper sometimes used as a torch. Glowing orbs of light or flickering flames over bogs and marshes are widely thought to be a result of burning marsh gas such as methane: lights you would be a fool to follow. However in Devon and Cornwall they are also known as Pixie Lights and in some cases are believed to lead travelers to hidden treasure, possibly mined by Pixies. In East Anglia the lights are known as The Lantern Man, and caused particular problems around the Broads and on the Acle Straight on Fridays.
Some sugar-beet Veg o Lantern owls outside The Forum in Norwich in 2016 – they traveled widely but never quite made it into the competition. Remembered by the slugs of Shouldham.
and some previous winners
* Why We Say ‘No Thank You’ To Pumpkins At The Real Halloween
There are several reasons why we don’t encourage Pumpkins at The Real Halloween, which can be summed up waste, pollution and authenticity. Mass Pumpkin growing for Halloween is a recent development in the UK and is the vegetable equivalent of plastic Halloween costumes in the problems it creates.
Waste: When we first started the event we did have pumpkin carving, and the huge pile of hundreds of Pumpkins looked great under an Oak tree. We soon realised this was a bad idea because it left us with a vast slurry heap of waste pumpkin flesh which had to be disposed of. One crew member volunteered to take it home for her pigs, until she thought about the logistics. In 2019 it was reported that
‘Every year, 10 million pumpkins are grown in the UK. Of those, 95% are used at Halloween and then thrown away – creating 18,000 tonnes of food waste. It’s a similar story in the United States, where most of the900,000 tonnes of pumpkin produced annually will be trashed, rather than used as food or composted’.
Pollution: conventionally (ie industrially) farmed Pumpkins, like those in supermarkets, are often heavily dosed with chemical fertiliser and pesticides, most of which ends up in the environment, harming nature. The US Environmental Working Group warns that the Pumpkin is:
‘extremely efficient at absorbing nutrients-and pesticides-from the soil, so you definitely want to choose organic pumpkins if you plan on eating the flesh or seeds. Pumpkins are heavily treated for insects, molds, and diseases’
This is especially true in the wet UK. This year the National Trust told the BBC that ‘an “army of slugs” are to blame for lower pumpkin and squash numbers this year’ due to ‘bad weather and heavy rain’, while ‘the RHS says that we need to look after our slugs in the UK, as they’re excellent for biodiversity’ and ‘People are advised to avoid using pesticides and try different methods to entice slugs away from their home-grown vegetables’.
Authenticity:
In old UK country traditions, root crops like Turnips were used to carve Jack o Lanterns, not Pumpkins, which introduced into the UK from America in the C17th/18th and were not farmed at scale as they are today (although they did appear in some food recipes used in richer country homes with gardeners and walled garden compost heaps). In Norfolk, many local families remember carving Sugar Beet from local farms, in the C20th. So we decided to encourage use of other veg rather than Pumpkins in the Veg o Lanterns, as otherwise many people would just go out and buy Pumpkins from PYO farms or shops, adding to the pollution issues, in the same way that they might buy and then bin plastic costumes.
Of course it’s entirely up to you if you want to grow and use Pumpkins at home, although from a nature point of view, it’s best to do it without chemicals.
