How-To: Video - Make a gourd lantern in 5 minutes. A dry gourd lantern can last many years and is perfect for putting a candle inside.

Using a fresh gourd that hasn't dried out makes it easy to carve with a kitchen knife much like cutting a pumpkin. It may only last for one Halloween; disposing of a gourd does not contribute to food waste and reserves the related species of pumpkins (Cucurbita) for the purpose of eating.

Many thousands of years ago in darkest Africa, people began decorating gourds. some of these were fetishes to dead and potentially dangerous spirits.

This practise was taken by religious zealots upon their movement from Britain to america after being exposed to the practice from slaves in Britain.

Somehow this morphed into decorating food and throwing away gourds when what the Ubuntu way would be to give away to food and decorate the gourds. Ubuntu is a Swahili word meaning friendship.
(collage image) - How the pilgrims co-opted the African tradition of gourds of the dead and re-branded it as Halloween.
Artist on becoming inspired with gourd art:
"Something clicked," Poole said. "I liked working with that. For one thing, it’s completely renewable, so you’re not using things that are impacting nature. It’s not like wood where you’re chopping down the tree and killing the tree. It’s a plant, it adds to nature, and you take that and turn it into something that’s useable."[1]