Why the pumpkin relates to the Holloween?

It is an Irish custom.They carve scary faces in melons to ward off evil spirits. We Yanks use Pumkin. Here is the link to the full story. www.faqkids.com/478-carve-pumkins-halloween.html

The name "Hallowe'en" is a shortened form of "All Hallows Eve" meaning "the day before All Saint's Day". Actually, the customs and traditions associated with the day are pre-Christian. It was thought that, at a certain time of the year, the division between this life and the after-life (the realm of spirits) became particularly thin and that spirits - both evil and good - could come back to this world. It was believed that, on that day, one should stay inside or, if you had to go out, should do so in company and not alone in case evil spirits should catch you and harm you. It was also the custom to use frightening masks and faces, sometimes made from a hollowed out turnip with a light inside, to keep the evil spirits away. When Europeans colonised America, the native pumpkin was found to be very well adapted to carving as turnips had been in the old country (in fact, it is easier to carve a pumpkin than to hollow out and carve a turnip!) The tradition of 'trick or treat' (where groups of people - not originally children - go from house to house asking for money or food in return for NOT causing some damage or mischief) belongs to many pre-Christian festivals or celebrations, not only (and probably not originally) to Hallowe'en. When Christianity first arrived in Europe and particularly in the Celtic countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, the missionaries did not ban the customs of the old religion but, instead, took the old gods and customs and tried to give them a Christian meaning. Many of the 'saints' in Wales and Ireland, particularly, are actually thinly disguised old gods and many of the days which were sacred in the old religions were turned into Christian celebrations with similar functions. Christmas is also one of these 'Christianised' festivals. Midwinter and the days after it were, in many of the old religions, days for celebrating the return (or birth) of the Sun. It was therefore quite reasonable and symbolic to 'paste over' it the celebration of the birth of Jesus, who several times called Himself the 'Light of the World'.

I guess because it is a scary jackolantern when it is carved out.

The turnip was traditionally used in Scotland and Ireland to carve for Halloween. But immigrants to North America started using pumpkins which were readily available and much larger. In 1837 is the first time the term jank-o-lantern was used. It is a lovely time of year.

Oh ,I know little about Holloween.I search it on Internet out of curiosity.The Holloween(the eve of all hallows,on the thirty-first of October) is Western traditional festival,at that night,children carry a pumpkin lantern also called Jack-o-lantern made of a pumpkin hollowed out ,with a candle in it and ask people for candy from door to door while crying out:"trick or treat!"

check on the net for the truth my dear

Pumpkins would have been seasonal produce at that time of year,so you would have them being used in various dishes around this time..and someone discovered the empty gourd would make for a fun Lantern to go with the spooky element of this holiday...and the rest,as they say,is History!

You know, it's a good question. It's something that I've never really asked myself. With all the years that I've seen pumpkins at Halloween, I've never really thought about why this was the case.

I was wondering about that, too. Halloween is also something not originally celebrated by my country, but I grew up watching American movies and English books, and I would see that pumpkin thing. Actually it looks pretty scary all carved up like that. But, whoever thought of carving it that way in the first place?

We don;t celebrate that festival but I know that they use it as a lantern that day and of course the craving effect and the light inside will give some horror feeling.(^^)But according to pumpkinmasters.com the lantern were placed on doorsteps to ward off evil spirits. The craving is just a creative way for them to make it more fun I think.(^^)