The Jack O’Lantern has long been associated with Halloween, stemming from the Irish carving out turnips to provide lanterns, however when they emigrated to America they found there were more pumpkins than turnips.   If you want to have a go at doing one yourself this year....

Carving a pumpkin into a Jack-O'-Lantern freehand is the traditional way of doing it, is very easy and only takes a few basic tools. A large spoon or ice-cream scoop, a thin bladed knife and some newspaper will get you started.

1. With a long, thin bladed knife, cut out the top of the pumpkin around the stem. The hole should be large enough to allow you to scoop out the seeds and stringy membrane by hand and with a large spoon. While you can cut a round circle out, you'll find that cutting a five or six sided opening will work best. As you cut out the top hole, angle the knife so that the lid and hole will be somewhat cone shaped therefore preventing the lid from falling into the hole.  
2. Inspect the surface of the pumpkin to decide the best side to carve your face. Now, visualise the face you want to carve and draw it on a suitably sized piece of paper.  Using sticky tape fix this to your pumpkin.  Using a nail press holes through the lines into your pumpkin.  Remove your pattern then use your knife (or jigsaw) to carefully cut out the parts of the face. When you are finished cutting, carefully push out the pieces to view the final results.
3. Make sure that you have scraped the bottom of the pumpkinflat, so that the candle will sit level in the pumpkin. A small candle, placed in a clear glass candle holder is safer and will actually last longer. Also, plain white candles give off the most light and will illuminate the inside of your Jack-O'-Lantern the best.

Keep in mind that a pumpkin will usually start to rot in about 3 days of cool (70 degree) weather and less in hot weather so don't carve those pumpkins too early.

If you spray the entire pumpkin inside and out with WD40 it will prevent rotting for a while. Whilst the oil in WD40 is combustible it will only set on fire when it is vaporised therefore once it has dried on the surface of the pumpkin it won't light.  Just don't spray the WD40 on the pumpkin while the candle is burning.

If you are feeling a bit more adventurous this year with your pumpkin carving pay a visit to Tom Nardone at www.extremepumpkins.com for some interesting ideas.