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Some Western cultural events or customs like sending Christmas cards or giving chocolates on Valentine’s Day have traveled well in Asia-in terms of how well they have caught on, with a few modifications here and there.

Halloween has also caught on in places like South Korea, Japan, and Thailand where the influx of Western English teachers has brought such customs of costumes, trick and treating, and carving Jack o’ Lanterns to the English classroom when teaching students about the holiday.

Sometimes though, there can be a clash of cultures like what happened at The Great Korean Pumpkin Carve-Off at a language institute in Seoul.

It was 1991, and I was teaching English at ELS, a well-known and quite famous language institute in southern Seoul (there was another branch located downtown). When Halloween neared, a few teachers got together and came up with some ideas on how the school and students could celebrate the holiday-from a haunted house in the basement and a costume contest to making decorations and finally, a Jack O’ Lantern carving contest.

Every teacher who had a class during the day could have their students participate in any one of these activities. Most classes wanted to carve a pumpkin because most students had never done anything like this before. Although pumpkins are indigenous to Korea, they are not like the ones, say found in the United States. Korean pumpkins are short and squat and a pale, brownish orange. Not exactly what you call ideal pumpkins for carving, but whoever was in charge of procuring the pumpkins managed to find some that had a little more height to them to facilitate carving as well as those with more color to them.

Pumpkins are used a lot in Korean cooking, especially for a kind of pumpkin porridge that is quite delicious. On the other hand though, and something I would learn to my own embarrassment, calling someone a “pumpkin” is not a term of endearment like it might be in the States. Instead in Korea, it implies being short and ugly,

On the day of The Great Pumpkin Carve-Off (the day before Halloween) the pumpkins were handed out to all the classes that wanted to participate; additionally, there would be a Jack O’ Lantern Contest the next day with prizes for the best one, funniest one, ugliest one, and the scariest.

The students in my class really got into carving their Jack o’ Lantern; they had fun hollowing out the pumpkin, getting their hands dirty with the pumpkin goo that they pulled out in handfuls and promptly disposed of (after threatening to throw some of it at their classmates) in a trashcan. Of course, they were supposed to be speaking English while they were carving their pumpkins and many did.

One of my students was an ex-Korean Air flight attendant and she had fun pulling out some handfuls of pumpkin goo-not exactly something she had ever encountered serving coffee or tea at 37,000 feet. Another student, who was an artist, took charge of coming up with a design for a scary Jack o’ Lantern.

In the meantime, while all these students were busily carving their pumpkins, the cleaning women-four middle-aged Korean women-responsible for cleaning the classrooms and bathrooms, could not believe what they were seeing: perfectly good pumpkin insides being thrown out by wasteful students and apparently, judging from all the laughter and giggling, being encouraged by their Western teachers. This was pumpkin blasphemy in their eyes and they were not about to let all that good pumpkin goo go to waste.

Like hawks circling high above looking for food, these four women swooped into each classroom and scooped up as much of the pumpkin innards they could get their hands on and salvage as much of it in the communal kitchen on the second floor of the four-storey building. Of course, as soon as these women burst in the classrooms and began to salvage whatever pumpkin viscera they could, the teachers and students were a little confused and there were a few, not-so kind words exchanged between cleaning women, teachers, and some of the older students, who might have outranked the four cleaning women in status, but not in age.

The Great Pumpkin Carve-Off had quickly turned into The Great Pumpkin Stand-Off as both sides refused to budge. Finally, one of the Korean office staff had to mediate a truce that allowed the carving to proceed without any more incident.

In the end the cleaning women won out: they were allowed to collect the pumpkin innards as soon as the students had hollowed out their pumpkins and the students continued to have fun carving their pumpkins. As for my class, it was a win-win situation: the cleaning women got their pumpkin goo and my students won first prize for the scariest Jack o’ Lantern.

The Caterpillar

Form a chain of pumpkins with carved spots, stripes, or other simple designs and a carved caterpillar “face” at the head. A string of pumpkin or low-heat lights will be perfect for lighting up a curved and twisting caterpillar on your porch or stoop.

Totem Pole

Stack your carved pumpkin faces into a totem pole lit with jar candles, touch lights, or a string of pumpkin lights inserted through holes in the back. Each face or front design can be unique — for a creative touch, consider the animal designs favored in ancient totem poles or try out your own silly or scary designs — how about the scariest characters from classic horror films?

Chain of Heads

A variety of different faces and ghoulish expressions are perfect for creating a long row of lanterns to line your porch, deck, or steps. Whether you carve cartoon characters, shrunken heads, or simple the standard Jack O’ Lantern faces, a row of grinning pumpkins on your porch is sure to produce a few compliments. For an extra unique touch: carve large selections from White Lumos pumpkins with “skull” faces for a Halloween pirate scene.

The variety of faces, details, and designs you can create are limited only to your imagination. Enjoy showing off your pumpkin harvest in a stellar Jack O’ Lantern extravaganza this Halloween.