2020-10-29 |
Trick or Treat: NCYU Horticultural Science Hall Lit up With Jack-o’-Lanterns |
Before Halloween, Pai-Tsang Chang, associate professor of the Department of Horticultural Science, National Chiayi University, taught the first-year undergraduates to make jack-o’-lanterns as part of the horticultural farm internship course. Beginning from Oct. 29th, the students would light the beautiful jack-o’-lanterns, bringing a festive Halloween atmosphere to the hallway of the NCYU Horticultural Science Hall when night falls. Each jack-o’-lantern was uniquely and intricately made by the students. The pumpkin is a horticultural product, and the jack-o’-lantern making during the internship course was expected to introduce the students new to the field to cultivation management, processing and utilization and landscape planning in horticulture.
Also known as the All Hallows’ Eve, Halloween is a traditional Western festival and has become a popular holiday in several Asian countries in modern days. Many children in kindergartens or elementary schools will take this chance to dress up as vampires, ghosts or skeletons, and collect candy in the neighborhoods on the eve of Halloween. This is to most of us one of the sweetest childhood memories. Associate Prof. Pai-Tsang Chang from the Department of Horticultural Science has taken up an interest in the Halloween celebrations when pursuing the doctoral degree in the U.S. After returning Taiwan, he gives candy to the students at NCYU on this day as a tradition to give them a different Halloween experience. At the internship course, he prepared 23 heirloom pumpkins for the students, with two teaming up to scrape the pulp out of the pumpkin to make a festive jack-o’-lantern. The winter squash variety was used for the internship in the past years. This year, the heirloom pumpkins were used instead as it was not the harvest season of the winter squash. The yellow skin of the heirloom pumpkins achieves an autumnal aura.
According to Associate Prof. Chang, it requires stills to make a pretty jack-o’-lantern. You need to turn the pumpkin on its side before sticking the knife into the top so that the lid will hold more securely. The thinner the walls, the move light will glow through them. The Department of Horticultural Science offers a practice-oriented program, with each professional course complete with internship that allows the students to learn by doing. The floral exhibition that takes place during the university’s anniversary celebration, for example, features works by the students from the Department of Horticultural Science. The horticultural farm internship course enables the students to grow vegetables, fruits, flowers and fruit trees, and learn how to improve the added value and availability of agricultural products. The jack-o’-lantern practice was believed to leave a long-lasting memory of school life for the students.
The students of the Department of Horticultural Science said they had never made a jack-o’-lantern on Halloween, since they had never thought about carving a pumpkin, which, in their impression, was only for eating. As it took a lot of hard work to make their first jack-o’-lantern, it turned out to be an interesting and rewarding experience for all of them.
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