Last year, during Halloween, I had a really good idea to carve pumpkins with my English club. It took us the larger part of one afternoon to find them, but we finally gathered enough from the market behind our school for what I thought would be an awesomely successful lesson. After getting my students really pumped with an explanatory PPT, my coteacher and I handed out carving tools (tiny utility knives *shudder*) and the kids went to town. About halfway through the carving, most of the kids had given up because the blades kept breaking off inside the pumpkins. Not to be beaten by those tiny problematic blades, I finished carving each of the pumpkins for them. The kids were all really happy with the results, and were able to take them home to show their families. I even seasoned and baked the seeds and brought them to school the next day.
+10 teacher points

Needless to say, I was a little surprised to hear that one of my students had eaten his jack-o’-lantern that same night.

I guess that’s one use for a really wasteful pagan tradition. Hobak soup is pretty delicious, so I don’t blame him one bit.