Why Pumpkins Keep Lantern Faces — Before pumpkins kept faces, Idra carried a covered ember down harvest lane, hoping to lend its gold to every dark doorstep before the midnight bell. Read the full story →
Before pumpkins kept faces, Idra carried a covered ember down harvest lane, hoping to lend its gold to every dark doorstep before the midnight bell. The air smelled of cut stems and rain-cold leaves; vines clicked softly against the fence, and paper bats trembled on strings. At the last gate, her ember went out. Idra set the hollow pumpkin down, ashamed of her empty hands, and heard a tiny rustle from inside where nobody thought to look.
She lifted the lid. Curled among the seeds was a little ghost, no bigger than a pear, holding a star like a secret it could no longer bear. “Too bright for one pocket,” it whispered. Idra laughed, and the laugh was so wide it shook the pumpkin wall into two eyes, a nose, and a toothy grin. Gold poured through the openings, over webs and leaves and startled spiders, until every house answered with its own hollow light. Ever since, pumpkins keep lantern faces because joy that large needs windows.
