Known as a neep or tumshie in Scotland, the type of turnip used for carving at Samhainn is the swede, yellow turnip, or rutabaga as it's commonly known elsewhere. They are skull-like in shape and the two-tone purple and off-white skin helps to accentuate the similarities with a skull once it's been carved and lit. The flesh is quite tough to cut through, but scooping out the insides isn't quite as hard as you might think - white turnips are a lot softer and easier to scoop out, but being smaller, you're not likely to be able to put a lid on without the candle going out.

The tumshie heads would have been hung from a pole and carried around on Hallowe'en night by guisers, but more usually these days they're simply put in the window or on the doorstep of the house. Either way, the purpose of them is to ward off spirits that are supposed to be about on the night, so the aim of them is to look as sinister and threatening as possible.

The strong smell (or stench...) of the flesh as you carve it is very evocative, and apt for the season. It can be very offputting, so it's best to carve them somewhere that's well ventilated. 

Because the flesh is quite tough, it's probably best left to an adult to scoop it out. Children can design the faces if they want to get involved, or else you could give them a smaller, white turnip to scoop out while you tackle the tumshies.

Instructions for carving

1. You will need as many tumshies as you want to carve, along with a sharp vegetable knife and a sturdy spoon for scooping out the flesh. A pen is handy if you want to draw the face on before carving it out, and a very sharp artist's knife can be used for carving out the features of your face if you want some precision. A vegetable knife works fine for this, but you might find your results are a bit crude. If you want to hang the lantern(s) from a pole, then you will need some thick wire (and a pole, obviously).

2. Cut off the top of the tumshie just at the widest point of the vegetable. If you need to, cut the root end so it's nice and flat so the lantern will be sturdy enough to stand safely on its own.

3. Now it's time to carve out the middle of the turnip. Score a cross into the middle of the flesh, as deeply as you can manage, and then cut diagonally into the centre of it in a circular motion. Bits of the flesh will start to come out, leaving an indent in the centre. Keep going until you can use the spoon to scoop round the insides - the spoon allows for a little more precision. The flakes of flesh that come out can be put into a bowl and used for cooking later.

4. Keep scooping out the insides until you get down to the bottom, and towards the sides. Leave the sides at least half a centimetre (or quarter of an inch) thick, to make sure the lantern will be sturdy, but carving out the face won't be too difficult - if the sides are too thick there will be a lot of resistance when you carve out the face, which can lead to your knife going off in a direction you don't want it to! Too thin and the wall of the tumshie is likely to split where you don't want it to. If you're going to hang the lantern, though, you might want to leave the top of the tumshie a little thicker that the rest of it, to make sure the wire can be threaded in without splitting the walls.

5. Scoop the bottom of the tumshie out nice and flat, to make sure your candle can sit evenly. If the lid is quite thick, scoop some of the middle out to make sure there's plenty of airspace inside.

6. Draw on your scary face with a pen, or score it out using your knife before carving it out. Remember to make the face as sinister as you can, and make sure the holes are big enough to allow plenty of air in, to keep your candle lit.

7. If you're hanging your lantern, you'll need to punch holes into either side of the face you've just carved - you should be able to just poke the wire through and then turn the end up inside the turnip to stop the wire from falling of again, but remember to attach the wire to the pole in some way as well. The sturdiest way would be to drill a hole through the pole so you can feed the wire through it before you attach it to the other side of the lantern.