Why Do People Carve Pumpkins? | Halloween Reading Comprehension

Practice English with a short passage about pumpkin faces and an older Irish custom. Read first, then answer five questions without looking at the answer key.

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An illustration of a turnip lantern beside a pumpkin lantern.

Reading Level

A2-B1. Suggested level for this original practice passage.

Word Count

197 words. Hyphenated forms count as one word.

Reading Passage

A face glows inside an orange pumpkin. Its eyes and mouth shine in the dark. This pumpkin lantern is called a jack-o'-lantern. People make these faces for Halloween, but the older custom used a different vegetable.

In Ireland, people carved faces into turnips. A turnip is a round root vegetable. They removed some of its inside and placed a candle there. Light passed through the holes in the face. Some people believed that frightening faces could keep unwanted spirits away. The lanterns also frightened people on Halloween night.

An old story connects the name to a man called Jack. In the story, Jack must travel through the countryside with a light. This is a folktale, not proof that Jack was a real person. Different versions of the story exist.

The custom later developed in America, where people used pumpkins for the lanterns. The vegetable changed, but the idea of a light inside a carved face remained.

Today, the National Museum of Ireland has a painted model of a turnip lantern. The model shows what a lantern from this older tradition looked like. Look at a pumpkin face again. Can you imagine the same face in a turnip?

An illustration comparing turnip and pumpkin lanterns.

Key Vocabulary

Word	Meaning
lantern	a container that holds a light
carve	to cut a shape into something
turnip	a round root vegetable
folktale	a traditional story shared by a community
tradition	a custom passed from one generation to another

Reading Comprehension Questions

1. Which vegetable did people use in the older Irish custom?
2. What did they place inside the carved vegetable?
3. Why did some people make frightening faces?
4. True or false: the story proves that Jack was a real person.
5. What changed when the custom developed in America?

Answers

1. Turnips.
2. A candle.
3. They believed the faces could keep unwanted spirits away.
4. False. It is a folktale, not proof about a real person.
5. People used pumpkins instead of turnips. The light inside a carved face remained.

Short Summary

Halloween pumpkin lanterns developed from an older turnip-carving custom. Stories and museum objects help us understand the tradition.

More Easy Readings

• What Is a Museum? | A2 ESL Culture Reading Passage

Sources: Library of Congress and the National Museum of Ireland.