When people used carved turnips instead of pumpkins.
@beforewisdom "In the 19th and early 20th centuries"? We all did this when we were kids in Scotland, which is considerably later than that.
It's hard work carving a turnip. Unlike pumpkins they're solid and tough. But they smell great when the candle inside starts caramelizing the turnip flesh.
I'm an American, so I never heard of turnip carving until I came across this article.
@beforewisdom We didn't have pumpkins in Scotland at that time.
When I first carved a pumpkin it felt like cheating. Hollowing a turnip is hard work, but pumpkins are already hollow! 99% of the work is already done for you.