Why is carving a pumpkin so important for Halloween? Halloween is a holiday celebrated in America every year on October 31st. Most Halloween traditions involve decorating the house with skeletons, witches, bats and pumpkins. You may have attended a Halloween party, where you dressed up in costume or went trick-or-treating. Pumpkin carving is a wonderful family tradition celebrated for generations on Halloween. My great-grandmother, Mary Darragh, brought the tradition with her from Ireland and passed it down to our family to share from generation to generation. In my family, it was important to know the legend behind Jack O'Lantern. Coming from Irish and Scottish heritage, our family's traditions and legends are what we love most. My great-grandmother shared this story with her daughter and it has been passed down ever since. I think this is necessary to know why you are celebrating these traditions and what they symbolize. Pumpkin carving is one of the most important Halloween traditions. Pumpkin carving is based on the story of "Stingy Jack". Irish legend states that Stingy Jack invited the devil in for a drink. Of course Jack didn't want to pay for the drinks. They didn't call him Stingy Jack for nothing! He played a trick on the Devil and convinced him to turn into a coin so he could pay for their drinks. When the Devil did this, Jack picked up the coin and placed it in his shirt pocket covering it with a silver cross. The cross prevented the Devil from returning to his normal form. After some time, Jack freed the Devil, with the understanding that the Devil could never claim his soul and would leave him alone for a year. After a year, the Devil returned to Jack... in the middle of the paper... us in life. We always choose to see them in a positive way. Focusing on the good they have done and their actions accomplished. How knowing them has helped us or changed us in some way for the better. I've never really thought of our Halloween festivities as a process. Looking back now, I can see the importance of every detail and the reasoning behind it. I find it absolutely amazing that our family has been able to continue these traditions since moving here from Ireland so many years ago. How generations of family members, how close, such as living in the same city, or how far, such as living out of state, continue these traditions with their own families. Family traditions are extremely important. They shape us into the people we are, and whether we realize it or not, we continue to honor our loved ones' pasts by carrying on their traditions..