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COLUMN: Carve a pumpkin for Thorold Library – win a gift card

Show off your spooky skills this fall – Rebecca Lazarenko on how to do it!
literary pumpkin contest pics
A selection of submissions of pumpkins sent into the library over the years. Photo: Rebecca Lazarenko

This year marks our 5th annual literary pumpkin contest. Once again, we’re sticking with the book inspired theme requirement. Ties in well with our whole book borrowing side project. If you’re looking for some idea of the competition, past winners have included Captain Underpants (2016), Charlotte’s Web (2017), Pete the Cat (2018), and Rainbow Fish (2019). While entries needn’t depict a specific character, your fictional focus must be communicated at the time of submission.

This year’s first-place winner will receive a $50 Chapters gift card and two runners-up will receive a $25 Chapters gift card each. In our hearts, one of those runners-up will obviously be more of a second-place finish and the other a distinctive third, but we plan to take that information to our grave. What with sticking to the whole Halloween subtheme and all.

To enter, participants must provide their own pumpkin and submit their creation between October 19 and October 22 during regular library hours. You can choose to decorate your pumpkin in whatever way you wish, whether that’s painting, carving, or a combination of techniques. Submissions will only be returned upon request. If you choose to leave your pumpkin with us, we’ll keep it on display for the remainder of its indoor shelf life before transitioning its compostable remains to our lovely library gardens – better known as the literary pumpkin contest circle of life.

While we don’t need to remind you that Halloween will look a little different this year, its rare blue moon has nothing to do with a cerulean hue, or spooky face mask will now hold a double meaning, we do have to acknowledge one small change to the structure of our contest this season. If you insist on applying the term “new normal” to some aspect of the competition, this would be it. Unlike past years, we will not be holding public judging, mainly to avoid amassing a small crowd and worrying about ballot sanitization protocol, but you’re still welcome to view the pumpkins on display for the duration of the competition week.

Now that we have the contest basics out of the way, we’ll address some LPC FAQs.

When is the deadline?

From the above date range, you will have gleaned that the last possible moment you could submit your pumpkin for consideration would be Thursday, October 22 at 7:59 PM. That said, you are statistically 78% more likely to drop and smash said entry if delivered with the last hour and 45-minute window of any competition you had hoped to enter. Another important note: we will not accept any entries before 10 AM on October 19 due to the unpredictable decomposing nature of the pumpkin art medium. Is this competition more for children? Well, it’s nice for the children to see us get this excited, so technically it’s for both of us. Oh, you mean who can enter. No, this competition is open to anyone who wishes to participate. We encourage all ages and skill levels. That said, we typically receive the bulk of our participation from family entries where children and adults have worked together to construct their masterpiece.

What is the difference between a pumpkin and a gourd?

That’s actually an interesting question. In a way, a pumpkin is a gourd, and gourds and pumpkins can both be squash, but they also fall under a broader Cucurbitaceae umbrella in which each category is distinctive. Further to that, the term pumpkin is said to have no true botanical meaning. A headscratcher at best and existential mystery at worst, but since the question itself is a little off-topic, we’ll deduct two imaginary points from your final competition score.

If you have any additional questions on how to enter, you can pop in, email [email protected], or give us a call at 905-227-2581.