Carving Jack-o-Lanterns, Celebrating Halloween

On October 31, twelve guys from Starbucks China came to the international campus of Shanghai Experimental School to celebrate Halloween with 23 students from the school’s R&S group. Their mission: to carve a jack-o-lantern.

After their introduction, the Starbucks staff and students split into four groups. Following the instructions from Shanghai R&S members, the students drew circles at the top of the pumpkins, and the Starbucks staff carefully cut along the circles to form a lid.

Then, it was the children’s turn! Their task was to empty the seeds and insides of the pumpkins, so that they would be easier to carve. In the beginning, the children were all armed with a spoon in their right hand, and pumpkin in the left as they happily dug in. But after a while, they found themselves tired and just started using their hands to dig. That was quite an interesting scene.

After all their effort, the pumpkins were finally empty. For safety, the next steps were done by the Starbucks staff. They drew the shape of the eyes, the nose, and mouth and carved them out with little knives. It was a test of patience of technique. They were all extremely delicate when cutting, to avoid breaking the pumpkins. But, at the same time, a lot of force was required in order to cut through the pumpkin.

Finally, all of the groups had finished. The children happily held their pumpkins. That day, all the children were dressed as princesses, superheroes, ninja turtles, and other characters. With their pumpkins and costumes, this halloween was definitely a good one!

(Translated by WFLMS Crunchy Zoo Language Club)