Save the Pumpkins!

When I was a missionary in Brazil, I learned that if you wanted to have blockbuster attendance at a church activity, all you had to do was label the activity as "American." There are so many things we do in America that they find fascinating down in Brazil. For instance, in Brazil they have gigantic chocolate eggs full of toys and candy inside for Easter, but they don't dye Easter eggs. I had my mom send me an Easter egg dying kit and the activity was a sensation. The Brazilians were both delighted and puzzled when I explained what they were supposed with the eggs. "What, with chicken eggs?" "What are you supposed to do with them afterwards?" When they were all dyed we had an Easter egg hunt and the kids went crazy for it.

Brazilians know about Halloween from American movies, but they don't really know about the finer points of trick-or-treating or pumpkin carving. In Brazil they have various squash varieties but they don't have real pumpkins. So for Halloween I put together an activity in which we carved squash and watermelons. It was another sensation.

Last night I was in charge of the Family Home Evening activity for the ward, and so I took that Halloween activity even farther. Entitled Save the Pumpkins!, the activity consisted of carving surrogate pumpkins such as cantaloupes, pineapples, pomegranates, apples, eggplants, coconuts, bell peppers, pears, kiwis, etc. I love being in a situation where I can watch people being creative and last night was filled with some really imaginative work, such as:

My personal favorite of the evening, Jessica Allen's coconut. Seth and I picked out the coconut as a joke because we thought that there was no way that anyone could carve a coconut. I love the primitive aesthetic and the play of textures from all parts of the coconut.

I was stunned to see this macabre piece come from sweet little Sister Kurabayashi. It is an apple with a knife through its head and pomegranate brains coming out. It appropriately won the prize as the scariest work. But it was fun to watch the Kurabayashis cackle with delight as they made one twisted decision after another.

This video showcases some of the finished pieces, including Jody and Evelyn's prize-winning Jonah and the Whale Eggplant (Most Original; Jody was on a roll yesterday - she gave a great talk in stake conference, she was baptized, and then she created a prize-winning eggplant carving) and Abe Gong's Elephant banana (Best Use of the Materials You Were Stuck With; it appropriately collapsed soon after judging).